THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


PRESENTED  BY 

PROF.  CHARLES  A.  KOFOID  AND 
MRS.  PRUDENCE  W.  KOFOID 


THE 


TRUE  GRANDEUR  OF  NATIONS: 


AN 


ORATION 

DELIVEKED  BEFORE  THE  AUTHORITIES 
OF  THE  CITY  OF  BOSTON, 

Inlg  4,  1815. 
BY  CHARLES  SUMNER. 


0  !  yet  a  nobler  task  awaits  thy  hand  ! 

For  what  can  War  but  endless  War  still  breed  ? 
Till  Truth  and  Right  from  Violence  be  fr.eed. 

MILTON,  SONNET  TO  FAIRFAX. 


FROM    THE    SECOND    BOSTON   EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

HENRY  LONGSTRETH,  347  MARKET  STREET. 
1846. 


Certainly  if  all  who  look  uppn  themselves  as  men,  not  so  much  from  the  shape 
of  their  bodies,  as  because  they  are  endowed  with  reason,  would  listen  awhile 
unto  Christ's  wholesome  and  peaceable  decrees,  and  not,  puffed  up  with  arro 
gance  and  conceit,  rather  believe  their  owne  opinions  than  his  admonitions  ;  the 
whole  world  long  ago  (turning  the  use  of  iron  into  milder  workes),  should  have 
lived  in  most  quiet  tranquillity,  and  have  met  together  in  a  firme  and  indissoluble 
League  of  most  safe  Concord. — ARNOBIUS,  ADVERSUS  GENTES,  LIB.  1,  p.  6. 


All  high  titles  come  hitherto  from  fighting.  Your  Herzog  (Duke,  Dux)  is  leader 
of  armies,-  your  Earl  (Jar!)  is  strong  man;  Marshal,  cavalry  horse-shoer.  A 
millennium,  or  reign  of  Peace,  having  been  prophesied,  and  becoming  daily  more 
and  more  indubitable,  may  it  not  be  apprehended  that  such  Fighting  titles  [also 
General,  Admiral,  Colonel,  Captain]  will  cease  to  be  palatable,  and  new  and 
higher  need  to  be  devised.— CARLYLE'S  SARTOR  RESARTUS. 


CITY    OF    BOSTON. 


In  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  July  7,  1845. 

Resolved,  That  the  thanks  of  this  Board  be  presented  in  behalf  of  the  City 
Council,  to  CHARLES  SUMNEK,  Esq.,  for  the  able  and  eloquent  oration,  delivered 
by  him,  before  the  Municipal  Authorities  of  the  City,  at  the  recent  celebration  of 
the  anniversary  of  the  Declaration  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States  ; — 
and  that  he  be  requested  to  furnish  a  copy  for  the  press. 

Attest,  S.  F.  McCLEARY,  City  Clerk. 


Boston,  July  10,  1845. 
SIR: 

I  am  grateful  to  my  fellow-citizens  for  listening  with  such  indulgence  to 
sentiments  which,  I  was  sorry  to  believe,  would  not  be  in  harmony  with  the 
opinions  of  all ;  and  I  now  place  at  your  disposal  a  copy  of  the  Oration,  much  of 
which  was  necessarily  omitted  in  the  delivery,  on  account  of  its  length. 

In  undertaking  to  present  my  views  of  the  True  Grandeur  of  Nations,  I  thought 
that  I  was  most  fitly  fulfilling  the  trust  that  had  been  reposed  in  me,  when  I 
was  selected  as  the  voice  of  the  City  of  Boston  on  the  National  Anniversary. 
Believing  that,  in  the  present  state  of  Christian  society,  all  war  and  all  preparation 
for  war,  are  irrational,  unnecessary  and  inconsistent  with  that  true  greatness  at 
which  our  republic  should  aim,  I  deemed  it  my  duty  on  that  occasion  to  uphold 
that  truth.  I  was  also  anxious  that  our  country  should  seek  the  true  glory,  and 
what  is  higher  than  glory,  the  great  good,  of  taking  the  lead  in  the  disarming  of 
the  nations. 

Allow  me  to  add,  that  I  wish  to  be  understood  as  restraining  my  opinions 
precisely  within  the  limits  which  I  have  assigned  them  in  these  pages;  and, 
particularly,  to  disclaim  the  suggestion  which  has  been  volunteered  with  regard 
to  them,  that  Force  may  not  be  employed,  under  the  sanction  of  Justice,  in  the 
conservation  of  the  laws  and  of  domestic  quiet.  All  good  men  must  unite  in 
condemning,  as  barbarous  and  unchristian,  the  resort  to  external  [Force ;  in  other 
words,  to  the  arbitrament  of  War ;  to  International  LYNCH  LAW;  or  the  great 
Trial  by  Battle,  to  determine  justice  between  nations. 

I  am,  sir,  your  obedient  servant, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 
THOMAS  A.  DAVIS,  ESQ.,  Mayor,  fyc.,  SfC. 


ORATION, 


IT  is  in  obedience  to  an  uninterrupted  usage  in  our  com 
munity  that,  on  this  Sabbath  of  the  Nation,  we  have  all  put 
aside  the  common  cares  of  life,  and  seized  a  respite  from  the 
never-ending  toils  of  labour,  to  meet  in  gladness  and  con 
gratulation,  mindful  of  the  blessings  transmitted  from  the 
Past,  mindful  also,  I  trust,  of  the  duties  to  the  Present  and 
the  Future.  May  he  who  now  addresses  you  be  enabled  so 
to  direct  your  minds,  that  you  shall  not  seem  to  have  lost  a 
day ! 

All  hearts  first  turn  to  the  Fathers  of  the  Republic. 
Their  venerable  forms  rise  before  us,  and  we  seem  to  behold 
them,  in  the  procession  of  successive  generations.  They 
come  from  the  frozen  rock  of  Plymouth,  from  the  wasted 
bands  of  Raleigh,  from  the  Heavenly  companionship  of  Wil 
liam  Penn,  from  the  anxious  councils  of  the  Revolution,  and 
from  all  those  fields  of  sacrifice,  on  which,  in  obedience  to 
the  Spirit  of  their  Age,  they  sealed  their  devotion  to  duty 
with  their  blood.  They  seem  to  speak  to  us,  their  children  ; 
"  Cease  to  vaunt  yourselves  of  what  you  do,  and  of  what 
has  been  done  for  you.  Learn  to  walk  humbly,  and  to 
think  meekly  of  yourselves.  Cultivate  habits  of  self-sacrifice 
and  of  devotion  to  duty.  May  our  words  be  always  in  your 
minds,  never  aim  at  aught  which  is  not  RIGHT,  persuaded 
that  without  this,  every  possession  and  all  knowledge  will 
become  an  evil  and  a  shame.  Strive  to  increase  the  inherit 
ance  which  we  have  bequeathed;  know,  that,  if  we  excel 
you  in  virtue,  such  a  victory  will  be  to  us  a  mortification, 
while  defeat  will  bring  happiness.  It  is  in  this  way,  that 
you  may  conquer  us.  Nothing  is  more  shameful  for  a  man, 


6 

than  to  found  his  title  to  esteem,  not  on  his  own  merits,  but 
on  the  fame  of  his  ancestors.  The  glory  of  the  Fathers  is 
doubtless  to  their  children  a  most  precious  treasure ;  but  to 
enjoy  it  without  transmitting  it  to  the  next  generation,  and 
without  adding  to  it  yourselves,  this  is  the  height  of  imbecility. 
Following  these  counsels,  when  your  days  shall  be  finished 
on  earth,  you  will  come  to  join  us,  and  we  shall  receive  you 
as  friends  receive  friends ;  but  if  you  neglect  our  words, 
expect  no  happy  greeting  then  from  us."* 

Honor  to  the  memory  of  our  Fathers !  May  the  turf  lie 
gently  on  their  sacred  graves  !  But  let  us  not  in  words  only, 
but  in  deeds  also,  testify  our  reverence  for  their  name.  Let 
us  imitate  what  in  them  was  lofty,  pure  and  good ;  let  us 
from  them  learn  to  bear  hardship  and  privation.  Let  us,  who 
now  reap  in  strength  what  they  sowed  in  weakness,  study  to 
enhance  the  inheritance  we  have  received.  To  do  this,  we 
must  not  fold  our  hands  in  slumber,  nor  abide  content  with 
the  Past.  To  each  generation  is  committed  its  peculiar  task  ; 
nor  does  the  heart,  which  responds  to  the  call  of  duty,  find 
rest  except  in  the  world  to  come. 

Be  ours,  then,  the  task  which,  in  the  order  of  Providence, 
has  been  cast  upon  us  !  And  what  is  this  task  ?  How  shall 
we  best  perform  the  part  assigned  to  us  ?  What  can  we  do 
to  make  our  coming  welcome  to  our  Fathers  in  the  skies, 
and  to  draw  to  our  memory  hereafter  the  homage  of  a  grate 
ful  posterity?  How  can  we  add  to  the  inheritance  we  have 
received?  The  answer  to  these  questions  cannot  fail  to 
interest  all  minds,  particularly  on  this  Anniversary  of  the 
birth-day  of  our  country.  Nay,  more ;  it  becomes  us,  on 
this  occasion,  as  patriots  and  citizens,  to  turn  our  thoughts 
inward,  as  the  good  man  dedicates  his  birth-day,  to  the 
consideration  of  his  character  and  the  mode  in  which  its 
vices  may  be  corrected  and  its  virtues  strengthened.  Avoid 
ing,  then,  all  exultation  in  the  prosperity  that  has  enriched 
our  land,  and  in  the  extending  influence  of  the  blessings  of 
freedom,  let  us  consider  what  we  can  do  to  elevate  our  cha 
racter,  to  add  to  the  happiness  of  all,  and  to  attain  to  that 
righteousness  which  exalteth  a  nation.  In  this  spirit,  I  pro 
pose  to  inquire  what,  in  our  age,  are  the  true  objects  of  na 
tional  ambition — what  is  truly  national  glory — national 
honor— WHAT  is  THE  TRUE  GRANDEUR  OP  NATIONS. 


*  The  chief  of  this  is  borrowed  almost  literally  from  the  words  attributed  by  Plato 
to  the  Fathers  of  Athena,  in  the  beautiful  Funeral  Discourse  of  the  Menexenue. 


I  hope  to  rescue  these  terms,  so  powerful  over  the  minds 
of  men,  from  the  mistaken  objects  to  which  they  are  applied, 
from  deeds  of  war  and  the  extension  of  empire,  that  hence 
forward  they  may  be  attached  only  to  acts  of  Justice  and 
Humanity. 

The  subject  will  raise  us  to  the  contemplation  of  things 
that  are  not  temporary  or  local  in  their  character ;  but  which 
belong  to  all  ages  and  all  countries ;  which  are  as  lofty  as 
Truth,  as  universal  as  Humanity.  But  it  derives  a  peculiar 
interest,  at  this  moment,  from  transactions  in  which  our 
country  has  become  involved.  On  the  one  side,  by  an  act 
of  unjust  legislation,  extending  our  power  over  Texas,  we 
have  endangered  Peace  with  Mexico  ;  while  on  the  other,  by 
a  presumptuous  assertion  of  a  disputed  claim  to  a  worthless 
territory  beyond  the  Rocky  Mountains,  we  have  kindled 
anew  on  the  hearth  of  our  Mother  Country,  the  smothered 
fires  of  hostile  strife.  Mexico  and  England  both  aver  the 
determination  to  vindicate  what  is  called  the  national  honor ; 
and  the  dread  arbitrament  of  war  is  calmly  contemplated  by 
our  Government,  provided  it  cannot  obtain  what  is  called  an 
honorable  peace.* 

Far  be  from  our  country  and  our  age  the  sin  and  shame  of 
contests  hateful  in  the  sight  of  God  and  all  good  men,  having 
their  origin  in  no  righteous  though  mistaken  sentiment,  in  no 
true  love  of  country,  in  no  generous  thirst  for  fame,  that  last 
infirmity  of  noble  minds,  but  springing  in  both  cases  from  an 
ignorant  and  ignoble  passion  for  new  territories;  strengthened 
in  one  case,  by  an  unnatural  desire,  in  this  land  of  boasted 
freedom,  to  fasten  by  new  links  the  chains  which  promise 
soon  to  fall  from  the  limbs  of  the  unhappy  slave  !  In  such 
contests,  God  has  no  attribute  which  can  join  with  us.  Who 
believes  that  the  national  honor  will  be  promoted  by  a  war 
with  Mexico  or  England  ?  What  just  man  would  sacrifice  a 
single  human  life,  to  bring  under  our  rule  both  Texas  and 
Oregon  ?  It  was  an  ancient  Roman,  touched  perhaps,  by  a 
transient  gleam  of  Christian  truth,  who  said,  when  he  turned 
aside  from  a  career  of  Asiatic  conquest,  that  he  would  rather 
save  the  life  of  a  single  citizen  than  become  master  of  all  the 
dominions  of  Mithridates. 

A  war  with  Mexico  would  be  mean  and  cowardly ;  but 

*  The  official  paper  at  Washington  has  said,  "  We  presume  the  negotiation  is 
really  resumed,  and  will  be  prosecuted  in  this  city,  and  not  in  London,  to  some 
definite  conclusion — peaceably  we  should  hope — but  we  wish  for  no  peace  but  an 
honorable  peace." 


8 

with  England  it  would  be  at  least  bold,  though  parricidal. 
The  heart  sickens  at  the  murderous  attack  upon  an  enemy, 
distracted  by  civil  feuds,  weak  at  home,  impotent  abroad  ;  but 
it  recoils  in  horror  from  the  deadly  shock  between  children 
of  a  common  ancestry,  speaking  the  same  language,  soothed 
in  infancy  by  the  same  words  of  love  and  tenderness,  and 
hardened  into  vigorous  manhood  under  the  bracing  influence 
of  institutions  drawn  from  the  same  ancient  founts  of  freedom. 
Curam  acuebat,  quod  adversus  Latinos  bellandum  erat, 
lingua  moribus,  armorum  genere,  institutis  ante  omnia 
militaribus  congrucntes ;  milites  militibus,  centurionibus 
centurioneSj  tribuni  tribunis  compares,  collegxque,  iisdem 
pzersidis,  ssepe  iisdem  manipulis  permixti  fuerant.* 

IN  OUK  AGE  THERE  CAN  BE  NO  PEACE  THAT  IS  NOT  HON 
ORABLE  ;  THERE  CAN  BE  NO  WAR  THAT  IS  NOT  DISHONOR 
ABLE.!  The  true  honor  of  a  nation  is  to  be  found  only  in 
deeds  of  justice  and  in  the  happiness  of  its  people,  all  of 
which  are  inconsistent  with  war.  In  the  clear  eye  of  Chris 
tian  judgment  vain  are  its  victories ;  infamous  are  its  spoils. 
He  is  the  true  benefactor  and  alone  worthy  of  honor  who 
brings  comfort  where  before  was  wretchedness ;  who  dries 
the  tear  of  sorrow ;  who  pours  oil  into  the  wounds  of  the 
unfortunate  ;  who  feeds  the  hungry  and  clothes  the  naked ; 
who  unlooses  the  fetters  of  the  slave  ;  who  does  justice  ;  who 
enlightens  the  ignorant;  who  enlivens  and  exalts,  by  his 
virtuous  genius,  in  art,  in  literature,  in  science,  the  hours  of 
life ;  who,  by  words  or  actions,  inspires  a  love  for  God  and 
for  man.  This  is  the  Christian  hero ;  this  is  the  man  of 
honor  in  a  Christian  land.  He  is  no  benefactor,  nor  deserv 
ing  of  honor,  whatever  may  be  his  worldly  renown,  whose 
life  is  passed  in  acts  of  force ;  who  renounces  the  great  law 
of  Christian  brotherhood ;  whose  vocation  is  blood ;  who 
triumphs  in  battle  over  his  fellow-men.  Well  may  old  Sir 
Thomas  Browne  exclaim,  "  the  world  does  not  know  its 

*T.  Liv.  VIII,  c.  6. 

t  It  will  be  observed  that  this  proposition  is  restrained  to  our  age.  It  is  not 
intended  to  express  any  opinion  with  regard  to  the  Past,  and,  particularly,  with 
regard  to  the  War  of  the  Revolution.  Wars  are  the  natural  consequence  of  the 
predominance  of  the  animal  part  of  our  nature  ;  but  the  day  has  now  arrived  in 
which  we  should  declare  Independence  of  the  bestial  propensities,  and  recognize 
the  supremacy  of  the  moral  and  intellectual  faculties.  The  question  of  the  justi- 
fiableness  of  the  War  of  the  Revolution  has  been  handled  with  great  strength  and 
freedom  by  Hon.  William  Jay,  in  his  admirable  publication,  Peace  and  War;  in 
a  sermon  by  Rev.  Mr.  Judd,  and  by  the  late  Mr.  Grimke,  of  South  Carolina,  in 
his  address  before  the  Connecticut  Peace  Society.  For  some  considerations 
bearing  on  this  question,  and  another  occurring  in  these  pages,  I  beg  leave  to 
refer  to  a  letter  printed  in  the  Appendix,  Note  A. 


o-reatest  men  ;"  for  thus  far  it  has  chiefly  discerned  the  violent 
brood  of  battle,  the  armed  men  springing  up  from  the  dragon's 
teeth  sown  by  Hate,  and  cared  little  for  the  truly  good  men, 
children  of  Love,  Cromwells  guiltless  of  their  country  s  blood, 
whose  steps  on  earth  have  been  as  noiseless  as  an  angel's 

win0* 

Itas  not  to  be  disguised  that  these  views  differ  from  the 
generally  received  opinions  of  the  world  down  to  this  day. 
The  voice  of  man  has  been  given  mostly  to  the  praise  of  mili 
tary  chieftains,  and  the  honors  of  victory  have  been  chanted 
even  by  the  lips  of  woman.    The  mother,  while  rocking  her 
infant  on  her  knees,  has  stamped  on  his  tender  mind,  at  that 
age   more  impressible  than  wax,  the  images  of  war;  she 
has  nursed  his  slumbers  with  its  melodies;  she  has  pleased 
his  waking  hours  with  its  stories ;  and  selected  for  his  play 
things  the  plume  and  the  sword.     The  child  is  father  to  the 
man ;  and  who  can  weigh  the  influence  of  these  early  im 
pressions  on  the  opinions  of  later  years  ?     The  mind  which 
trains  the  child  is  like  the  hand  which  commands  the  end  of 
a  long  lever;  a  gentle  effort  at  that  time  suffices  to  heave  the 
enormous  weight  of  succeeding  years.     As  the  boy  advances 
to  youth  he  is  fed,  like  Achilles,  not  only  on  honey  and  milk, 
but  on  bear's  flesh  and  lion's  marrow.    He  draws  the  nutri 
ment  of  his  soul  from  a  literature,  whose  beautiful  fields  have 
been  moistened  by  human  blood.     Fain  would  I  offer  my 
tribute  to  the  Father  of  Poetry,  standing,  with  harp  of  im 
mortal  melody,  on  the  misty  mountain  top  of  distant  anti 
quity;  to  all  those  stories  of  courage   and   sacrifice  which 
emblazon  the  annals  of  Greece  and  Rome  ;  to  the  fulmina- 
tions  of  Demosthenes  and  the  splendors  of  Tully  ;  to  the  sweet 
verse  of  Virgil  and  the  poetic  prose  of  Livy.     Fain  would  I 
offer  my  tribute  to  the  new  literature,  which  shot  up  in  modem 
times  as  a  vigorous  forest  from  the   burnt  site  of  ancient 
woods ;  to  the  passionate  song  of  the  Troubadour  of  France, 
and  the  Minnesinger  of  Germany ;  to  the  thrilling  ballads  of 
Spain,  and  the  delicate  music  of  the  Italian  lyre.     But  from 
all  these  has  breathed  the  breath  of  war,  that  has  swept  the 
heart-strings  of  innumerable  generations  of  men  ! 

And  when  the  youth  becomes  a  man,  his  country  invites 
his  services  in  war,  and  holds  before  his  bewildered  imagina 
tion  the  highest  prizes  of  honor.  For  him  is  the  pen  of  the 
historian  and  the  verse  of  the  poet.  His  soul  swells  at  the 
thought,  that  he  also  is  a  soldier ;  that  his  name  shall  be  en 
tered  on  the  list  of  those  who  have  borne  arms  in  the  cause  of 


10 

their  country;  and,  perhaps,  he  dreams,  that  he  too  may 
sleep,  like  the  Great  Captain  of  Spain,  with  a  hundred  trophies 
over  his  grave.  But  the  contagion  spreads  among  us,  beyond 
those  bands  on  whom  is  imposed  the  positive  obligation  of 
law.  Respectable  citizens  volunteer  to  look  like  soldiers,  and 
to  affect  in  dress,  in  arms  and  deportment,  what  is  called  "  the 
pride,  pomp  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war."  The  ear- 
piercing  fife  has  to-day  filled  our  streets,  and  we  have  come 
together,  on  this  Anniversary,  by  the  thump  of  drum  and  the 
sound  of  martial  music. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  the  spirit  of  war  still  finds  a 
home  among  us  :  nor  that  its  honors  are  still  regarded.  This 
fact  may  seem  to  give  point  to  the  bitter  philosophy  of 
Hobbes,  who  held  that  the  natural  state  of  mankind  was 
war,  and  to  sustain  the  exulting  language  of  the  soldier  in 
our  own  day,  who  has  said :  "  War  is  the  condition  of  this 
world.  From  man  to  the  smallest  insect,  all  are  at  strife;  and 
the  glory  of  arms,  which  cannot  be  obtained  without  the  ex 
ercise  of  honor,  fortitude,  courage,  obedience,  modesty  and 
temperance,  excites  the  brave  man's  patriotism,  and  is  a 
chastening  correction  of  the  rich  man's  pride."* 

I  now  ask  what  is  war  ?  Let  me  give  a  short  but  strictly 
scientific  answer.  War  is  a  public,  armed,  contest,  between 
nations,  in  order*  to  establish  JUSTICE  between  them  ;  as,  for 
instance,  to  determine  a  disputed  boundary  line,  or  the  title 
to  a  territory.  It  has  been  called  by  Lord  Bacon  "  one  of  the 
highest  trials  of  right,  when  princes  and  states,  that  ac 
knowledge  no  superior  upon  earth,  shall  put  themselves  upon 
the  justice  of  God  for  the  deciding  of  their  controversies  by 
such  success  as  it  shall  please  him  to  give  on  either  side."t 

*  Napier  Penins.  War.  VI.  688.  "Why,  man,"  said  a  British  General,  "  do 
you  know  that  a  grenadier  is  the  greatest  character  in  this  world,"  and  after  a 
moment's  pause,  adding  the  emphasis  of  an  oath  to  his  speech,  "  and,  I  believe, 
in  the  next  too."  Southey's  Colloquies  on  the  Progress  and  Prospects  of  So 
ciety,  1.211. 

t  Bacon's  Works,  Vol.  III.  p.  40.  This  definition  of  Lord  Bacon  has  been 
adopted  by  Mr.  Chancellor  Kent  in  his  authoritative  work. — Kent,  Commenta 
ries  on  American  Law,  Vol.  I.  p.  46.  Valtel  defines  war  as  "that  state  in  which 
we  prosecute  our  rights  by  /orce." — Law  of  Nations,  Book  3,  ch.  1.  §  1;  in 
which  he  very  nearly  follows  Bynkershoek,  who  says;  Bellum  est  eorum,  qui 
suae  potestatis  sunt,  juris  sui  perscquendi  ergo,  concertatio  per  vim  del  dolum. — 
Quaeest.  Jur.  Pub.  Lib.  I.  c.  6.  Mr.  Whewell,  in  his  recent  work,  says;  Though 
war  is  appealed  to  because  there  is  no  other  ultimate  tribunal  to  which  States 
can  have  recourse,  it  is  appealed  to  for  justice. — Elements  of  Morality  and 
Polity,  Vol.  II.  §  1146.  Mr.  Lieber  says,  in  a  work  abounding  in  learning  and 
sagacious  thought,  Political  Ethics,  II.  643,  that  war  is  a  mode  of  obtaining 
rights;  a  definition  which  does  not  differ  in  substance  from  that  in  the  text; 
though  he  imagines  that  such  wars  may  justly  be  regarded  as  defensive  in  their 


11 

This  definition  may  seem,  at  first  view,  to  exclude  what 
are  termed  by  "  martial  logic,"  defensive  wars.  But  a  close 
consideration  of  the  subject  will  make  it  apparent  that  no 
war  can  arise  among  Christian  nations,  at  the  present  day, 
except  to  determine  an  asserted  right.  The  wars  usually 
and  falsely  called  defensive  are  of  this  character.  They  are 
appeals  for  justice  to  force ;  endeavours  to  redress  evils  by 
force.  They  spring  from  the  sentiment  of  vengeance  or 
honor.  They  inflict  evil  for  evil,  and  vainly  essay  to  over 
come  evil  by  evil.  The  wars  that  now  lower  from  Mexico 
and  England  are  of  this  character.  On  the  one  side,  we 
assert  a  title  to  Texas,  which  is  disputed ;  and  on  the  other 
a  title  to  Oregon,  which  is  disputed.  Who  can  regard  the 
ordeal  by  battle  in  these  causes  as  a  defensive  war  ?  The 
object  proposed  in  1R34  by  war  with  France,  was  to  secure 
the  payment  of  five  millions  of  dollars,  in  other  words,  to 
determine,  by  the  arbitrament  of  war,  a  question  of  justice. 
It  would  be  madness  to  term  this  a  case  of  self-defence ;  it 
has  been  happily  said,*  if,  because  a  man  refuses  to  pay  a 
just  debt,  I  go  to  his  house  and  beat  him,  that  is  not  self- 
defence  ;  but  such  was  precisely  the  conduct  proposed  to  be 
adopted  by  our  country.  The  avowed  purpose  of  the  war, 
declared  by  the  United  States  against  Great  Britain  in  1812, 
was  to  obtain  from  the  latter  power  an  abandonment  of  her 
unrighteous  claim  to  search  American  vessels.  It  is  a  mock 
ery  to  miscall  such  a  contest  a  defensive  war. 

I  repeat,  therefore,  that  war  is  a  public  armed  contest,  be 
tween  nations,  in  order  to  establish  justice  between  them. 

When  we  have  considered  the  character  of  war ;  the  mis 
eries  it  produces  ;  and  its  utter  and  shameful  insufficiency,  as 
a  means  of  establishing  justice,  we  may  then  be  able  to  de 
termine,  strictly  and  logically,  whether  it  must  not  be  ranked 
with  crimes  from  which  no  true  honor  can  spring,  to  indi 
viduals  or  nations,  but  rather  condemnation  and  shame. 

I.  And  first  as  to  the  character  of  war,  or  that  part  of  our 
nature  in  which  it  has  its  origin.  Listen  to  the  voice  of  the 
ancient  poet  of  Boeotian  Ascra  : 

character.  He  advocates  war  with  the  ardor  of  one  inspired  by  the  history  of 
the  past,  and  looking  no  higher  than  to  history  for  rules  of  conduct,  while  his 
own  experience  of  suffering  on  fields  of  slaughter  has  failed  to  make  him  discern 
the  folly  and  wickedness  of  such  a  mode  of  determining  questions  between 
nations. 

*  Rev.  Andrew  P.  Peabody,  in  his  Address  on  the  Nature  and  Influence  of  War, 
where  he  treats  this  topic,  as  well  as  the  whole  subject  of  war,  with  great  point 
and  effect. 


12 

This  is  the  law  for  mortals  ordained  by  the  Ruler  of  Heaven ; 
Fishes  and  Beasts  and  Birds  of  the  air  devour  each  other; 
JUSTICE  dwells  not  among  them  ;  only  to  MAN  has  he  given 
JUSTICE  the  Highest  and  Best.* 

The  first  idea  that  rises  to  the  mind,  in  regarding  war,  is 
that  it  is  a  resort  to  force,  whereby  each  nation  strives  to 
overpower  the  other.  Reason,  and  the  divine  part  of  our 
nature,  in  which  alone  we  differ  from  the  beasts,  in  which 
alone  we  approach  the  Divinity,  in  which  alone  are  the  ele 
ments  of  justice,  the  professed  object  of  war,  a/e  dethroned. 
It  is,  in  short,  a  temporary  adoption,  by  men,  of  the  character 
of  wild  beasts,  emulating  their  ferocity,  rejoicing  like  them  in 
blood,  and  seeking,  as  with  a  lion's  paw,  to  hold  an  asserted 
right.  This  character  of  war  is  somewhat  disguised,  in  more 
recent  days,  by  the  skill  and  knowledge  which  it  employs  ; 
it  is,  however,  still  the  same,  made  more  destructive  by  the 
genius  and  intellect  which  have  been  degraded  to  its  servants. 
The  early  poets,  in  the  unconscious  simplicity  of  the  world's 
childhood,  make  this  strikingly  apparent.  All  the  heroes  of 
Horner  are  likened  in  their  rage  to  the  ungovernable  fury  of 
animals  or  things  devoid  of  human  reason  or  human  affec 
tion.  Menelaus  presses  his  way  through  the  crowd,  "  like  a 
beast."t  Sarpedon  was  aroused  against  the  Argives,  "as 
a  lion  against  the  crooked-horned  oxen  ;"J  and  afterwards 
rushes  forward  "  like  a  lion  nourished  on  the  mountains  for 
a  long  time  famished  for  want  of  flesh,  but  whose  courage 
compels  him  to  go  even  to  the  well-guarded  sheep-fold."§ 
The  great  Telamonian  Ajax  in  one  and  the  same  passage  is 
likened  to  "  a  beast,"  "  a  tawny  lion"  and  "  an  obstinate 
ass;"||  and  all  the  Greek  chiefs,  the  flower  of  the  camp, 
are  described  as  ranged  about  Diomed,  "  like  raw-eating  lions 
or  wild  boars  whose  strength  is  irresistible."1F  And  Hector, 
the  hero  in  whom  cluster  the  highest  virtues  of  polished  war, 
is  called  by  the  characteristic  term,  "  the  tamer  of  horses," 
and  one  of  his  renowned  feats  in  battle,  indicating  only  brute 
strength,  is  where  he  takes  up  and  hurls  a  stone  which  two 
of  the  strongest  men  could  not  easily  put  into  a  wagon  ;** 
and  he  drives  over  dead  bodies  and  shields,  while  the  axle  is 
defiled  by  gore,  and  the  guard  about  the  seat,  sprinkled  from 

*IIesiod,  Works  and  Days,  v.  276—279.  Cicero  also  says;  Neque  ulla  re 
longius  absumus  a  natura  ferarum,  in  quibus  inesse  fortitudinem  sacpe  dicimus  ut 

in  equis,  in  leonibus ;  justitiam,  aequitatem,  bonitatem  non  dicimus. De  Offic 

Lib.  1  cap.  16. 

t  ®rgi  (?otxu>?.  II.  III.  449.     J  A«w0'  wj  povalv  e'Jufii;.     II.  XII.  293. 

«j  II.  XII.  300—306.  ||  II.  XL  546—558.  IT  II.  V.  782 

**I1.  XII.  415 — 449.     Sae  a  similar  act,  ^Eneid  XII.  826. 


13 

the  horse's  hoofs  and  from  the  tires  of  the  wheels  ;*  and, 
in  that  most  admired  passage  of  ancient  literature,  before 
returning  his  child-,  the  young  Astyanax,  to  the  arms  of  his 
wife,  he  invokes  the  gods  for  a  single  blessing  on  his  head, 
that  "  he  may  excel  his  father,  and  bring  home  bloody 
spoils,  his  enemy  being  slain,  and  so  make  glad  the  heart  of 
his  mother.'^ 

Illustrations  of  this  nature  might  be  gathered  from  the  early 
fields  of  modem  literature,  as  well  as  from  the  more  ancient, 
all  showing  the  unconscious  degradation  of  the  soldier,  who, 
in  the  pursuit  M  justice,  renounces  the  human  character  to 
assume  that  oHhe  beasts.  Henry  V,  in  our  own  Shakspeare, 
in  the  spirit-stirring  appeal  to  his  troops,  says  : 

When  the  blast  of  war  blows  in  our  ears, 
Then  imitate  the  action  of  the  tiger. \ 

This  is  plain  and  frank,  and  reveals  the  true  character  of  war. 
I  need  not  dwell  on  the  moral  debasement  of  man  that 
must  ensue.  All  the  passions  of  his  nature  are  unleashed 
like  so  many  blood-hounds,  and  suffered  to  rage.  All  the 
crimes  which  fill  our  prisons  stalk  abroad,  plaited  with  the 
soldier's  garb,  and  unwhipt  of  justice.  Murder,  robbery, 
rape,  arson,  theft,  are  the  sports  of  this  fiendish  Saturnalia, 
when 

The  gates  of  mercy  shall  be  all  shut  up   " 
And  the  fleshed  soldier,  rough  and  hard  of  heart, 
In  the  liberty  of  bloody  hand  shall  range 
With  conscience  wide  as  hell. 

Such  is  the  foul  disfigurement  which  war  produces  in  man  > 
man,  of  whom  it  has  been  said,  "how  noble  in  reason,  how 
infinite  in  faculties !  in  form  and  moving,  how  express  and 
admirable !  in  action,  how  like  an  angel !  in  apprehension 
how  like  a  God !" 

II.  Let  us  now  consider  more  particularly  the  effects  or 
consequences  of  this  resort  to  brute  force,  in  the  pursuit  of 
justice. 

The  immediate  effect  of  war  is  to  sever  all  relations  of 
friendship  and  commerce  between  the  two  nations  and  every 

*I1.  XI.  534.  See  a  similar  scene,  /Eneid  XII.  337.  In  modern  warfare,  we 
find  a  similar  sketch  of  the  great  Conde.  The  soul  is  startled  by  the  picture  of 
a  distinguished  person,  in  whom  the  human  character  has  been  blotted  out;  '*  Le 
Due  etait  couvert  de  sueur,  de  poussiere,  et  de  fumee  ;  le  feu  jaillissait  de  ses 
yeux,  et  le  bras  dont  it  tenait  son  epee  etait  ensanglante  jusqu  ">au  coude.  *  Vous 
etes  blesse,  Monseigneur  ?'  Lui  demanda  Bussaq.  'Non,  non,'  repondit  Enghien 
[Conde] ;  '  Vest  le  sang  de  ces  coquins  /»  17  voulait  parler  dcs  ennemis."  Mahon, 
Essai  sur  la  vie  du  Grand  Conde,  p.  60. 

t  II.  VI.  476—481.  t  Hen.  V.  Act  3,  Scene  1. 


14 

individual  thereof,  impressing  upon  each  citizen  or  subject  the 
character  of  enemy.  Imagine  this  between  England  and 
the  United  States.  The  innumerable  ships  of  the  two  coun 
tries,  the  white  doves  of  commerce,  bearing  the  olive  of 
peace,  would  be  driven  from  the  sea,  or  turned  from  their 
proper  purposes  to  be  ministers  of  destruction ;  the  threads 
of  social  and  business  intercourse  which  have  become  woven 
into  a  thick  web  would  be  suddenly  snapped  asunder  ;  friend 
could  no  longer  communicate  with  friend ;  the  twenty  thou 
sand  letters,  which  each  fortnight  are  speeded,  from  this  port 
alone,  across  the  sea,  could  no  longer  be  sent^nd  the  human 
affections  and  desires,  of  which  these  are  ft  precious  ex 
pression,  would  seek  in  vain  for  utterance.  Tell  me,  you, 
who  have  friends  and  kindred  abroad,  or  who  are  bound  to 
foreigners  by  the  more  worldly  relations  of  commerce,  are 
you  prepared  for  this  rude  separation  ? 

But  this  is  little  compared  with  what  must  follow.  This 
is  only  the  first  portentous  shadow  of  the  disastrous  eclipse, 
the  twilight  usher  of  thick  darkness,  that  is  to  cover  the 
whole  heavens,  as  with  a  pall,  to  be  broken  only  by  the 
blazing  lightnings  of  the  battle  and  the  siege. 

The  horrors  of  these  redden  every  page  of  history ;  while, 
to  the  disgrace  of  humanity,  the  historian  has  rarely  applied 
to  their  brutal  authors  the  condemnation  they  deserve.  A 
popular  writer,  in  our  own  day,  dazzled  by  those  false  ideas 
of  greatness  at  which  reason  and  Christianity  blush,  does  not 
hesitate  to  dwell  on  them  with  terms  of  rapture  and  eulogy.* 


*The  same  spirit  pervades  the  Histoire  de  la  Revolution  Francaise,  by  Thiers, 
and  so  far  as  I  have  read  it,  his  later  work,  the  History  of  the  Consulate  and 
Empire.  For  a  degrading  picture  of  what  is  called  glory,  I  would  refer  to  the 
Histoire  de  la  Revolution,  Tom,  8,  p.  430.  War  in  every  age  has  been  the  same  • 
and  to  the  shame  of  human  nature  has  never  wanted  historians,  who  described 
its  deeds  with  feelings  kindred  to  those  by  which  they  were  inspired.  Frois- 
sart,  who  takes  special  delight  in  describing  "  les  rencontres  ou  1'on  pouvoit 
voir  d'une  et  d'autre  part,  belles  envahies,  belles  rescousses,  beaux  faits  d'armes, 
et  belles  prouesses,"  has  recounted  with  much  detail  all  the  assaults  of  cities 
and  castles,  the  almost  constant  result  of  which  was,  "  que  la  ville  etoit  assez 
tot  'gagnee  par  force  ct  tantot  robee  et  mise  H  1'epee,  sans  mercy,  hommes  et 
femmes  et  enfans,  et  less  eglises  arses  et  bruslees."  Lewis  of  Spain  transported 
his  troops  to  Basse-Bretannque,  "pour  aller  ardoir  et  rober  tout  le  pays  et 
trouverent  si  grand  avoir  que  merveille  seroit  H  raconter."  Gaultier  de  Maury 
pursued  them  ;  but  he  occupied  himself  «  H  maisons  et  villes  ardoir,  et  a  gaffner 
du  butm."  Froissart,  c.  178,  p.  88.  Sismondi  has  correctly  remarked  that  Frois 
sart  accorded  his  admiration  equally  to  bravery  and  to  cunning,  to  the  courtesy 
which  pardoned  as  to  the  rage  which  caused  the  flow  of  torrents  of  blood.  Sis 
mondi,  Histoire  des  Francais,  Tom.  X.  373.  Even  the  beautiful  soul  of  Wilber- 
force,  which  sighed  that  "the  bloody  laws  of  his  country  sent  many  unprepared 
into  another  world,'' by  capital  punishment,  could  hail  the  slaughter  of  Waterloo, 
on  the  babbath  that  he  held  so  holy,  by  which  thousands  were  hurried  into  Eter 
nity,  as  "  a  splendid  victory  !"  Life  of  Wilberforce,  IV.  256,  261. 


15 

At  Tarragona,  above  six  thousand  human  beings,  almost  all 
defenceless,  men  and  women,  grey  hairs  and  infant  inno 
cence,  attractive  youth  and  wrinkled  age,  were  butchered  by 
the  infuriated  troops  in  one  night,  and  the  morning  sun  rose 
upon  a  city  whose  streets  and  houses  were  inundated  with 
blood.  And  yet  this  is  called  "  a  glorious  exploit."*  This 
was  a  conquest  by  the  French.  At  a  later  day  Ciudad  Rod- 
rigo  was  stormed  by  the  British,  when  there  ensued  in  the 
license  of  victory,  a  frightful  scene  of  plunder  and  violence, 
while  shouts  and  screams  on  all  sides  fearfully  intermingled 
with  the  groans  of  the  wounded.  The  churches  were  dese 
crated,  the  cellars  of  wine  and  spirits  were  pillaged ;  fire  was 
wantonly  applied  to  different  parts  of  the  city;  and  brutal 
intoxication  spread  in  every  direction.  It  was  only  when  the 
drunken  men  dropped  from  excess,  or  fell  asleep,  that  any 
degree  of  order  was  restored,  and  yet  the  storming  of  Ciudad 
Rodrigo  is  pronounced  "  one  of  the  most  brilliant  exploits  of 
the  British  army."t  This  exploit  was  followed  by  the  storm 
ing  of  Badajoz,  in  which  the  same  scenes  were  enacted  again 
with  added  atrocities.  Let  the  story  be  told  in  the  words  of 
a  partial  historian ;  "  Shameless  rapacity,  brutal  intemper 
ance,  savage  lust,  cruelty  and  murder,  shrieks  and  piteous 
lamentations,  groans,  shouts,  imprecations,  the  hissing  of  fire 
bursting  from  the  houses,  the  crashing  of  doors  and  windows, 
and  the  report  of  muskets  used  in  violence,  resounded  for  two 
days  and  nights  in  the  streets  of  Badajoz  !  On  the  third 
when  the  city  was  sacked,  when  the  soldiers  were  exhausted 
by  their  excesses,  the  tumult  rather  subsided  than  was  quelled ! 
The  wounded  were  then  looked  to,  the  dead  disposed  of.":j: 

The  same  terrible  war  affords  another  instance  of  the  hor 
rors  of  a  siege,  which  cries  to  Heaven  for  judgment.  For 
weeks  before  the  surrender  of  Saragossa,  the  deaths  were 
from  four  to  five  hundred  daily ;  the  living  were  unable  to 
bury  the  dead,  and  thousands  of  carcasses,  scattered  about 
the  streets  and  court-yards,  or  piled  in  heaps  at  the  doors  of 
churches,  were  left  to  dissolve  in  their  own  corruption  or  to 
be  licked  up  by  the  flames  of  the  burning  houses.  The  city 
was  shaken  to  its  foundation  by  sixteen  thousand  shells 
thrown  during  the  bombardment,  and  the  explosion  of  forty- 
five  thousand  pounds  of  powder  in  the  mines,  while  the  bones 


*  Alison,  Hist,  of  French  Rev.  VIII.  114.  t  Alison,  Hist.  VIII.  189. 

t  Napier,  History  of  Penins.  War,  IV.  431. 


16 

of  forty  thousand  persons  of  every  age  and  both  sexes  bore 
dreadful  testimony  to  the  unutterable  atrocity  of  war.* 

These  might  be  supposed  to  be  pictures  from  the  age  of 
Alaric,  Scourge  of  God,  or  of  Attila,  whose  boast  was,  that 
the  grass  did  not  grow  where  his  horse  had  set  his  foot ;  but 
no ;  they  belong  to  our  own  times.  They  are  portions  of 
the  wonderful  but  wicked  career  of  him,  who  stands  out  as 
the  foremost  representative  of  worldly  grandeur.  The  heart 
aches,  as  we  follow  him  and  his  marshals  from  field  to 
field  of  glory.t  At  Albuera  in  Spain,  we  see  the  horrid 
piles  of  carcasses,  while  all  the  night  the  rain  pours  down, 
and  the  river  and  the  hills  and  the  woods  on  each  side,  re 
sound  with  the  dismal  clamors  and  groans  of  dying  men.J 
At  Salamanca,  long  after  the  battle,  we  behold  the  ground 
still  blanched  by  the  skeletons  of  those  who  fell,  and  strewn 
with  the  fragments  of  casques  and  cuirasses.  We  follow  in 
the  dismal  traces  of  his  Russian  campaign ;  at  Valentina§ 
we  see  the  soldiers  black  with  powder,  their  bayonets  bent 
with  the  violence  of  the  encounter ;  the  earth  ploughed  with 
cannon  shot,  the  trees  torn  and  mutilated,  the  field  covered 
with  broken  carriages,  wounded  horses  and  mangled  bodies, 
while  disease,  sad  attendant  on  military  suffering,  sweeps 
thousands  from  the  great  hospitals  of  the  army,  and  the  mul 
titude  of  amputated  limbs,  which  there  is  riot  time  to  destroy, 
accumulate  in  bloody  heaps,  filling  the  air  with  corruption.  || 
What  tongue,  what  pen,  can  describe  the  horrors  of  the 
field  of  Borodino,  where  between  the  rise  and  set  of  a  single 
sun,  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  of  our  fellow-men, 
equalling  in  number  the  population  of  this  whole  city,  sank 
to  the  earth  dead  or  wounded  ?  Fifty  days  after  the  battle, 
no  less  than  twenty  thousand  are  found  lying  where  they 

*  Napier,  Hist,  of  Pen.  War,  II.  46.  For  the  terrific  storming  of  St.  Sebastian. 
see  Napier,  VI.  197—219. 

"f  A  living  poet  of  It;ily,  who  will  be  placed  by  his  prose,  among  the  great  names 
of  his  country's  literature,  in  a  deathless  ode,  which  he  has  thrown  on  the  Urn  of 
Napoleon,  leaves  to  posterity  to  judge,  whether  his  was  true  glory. 

Ball'  Alpi  alle  Piramidi, 
Dal  Manzanare  al  Reno 
Di  quel  securo  il  fulmine, 
Tenea  dietro  il  baleno, 
Scoppio  da  Scilla  al  Tanai 
Dall'  uno  all'  altro  mar. 
Fa  vera  gloria  ?    Ai  posteri 

L>  ardua  sentcnza.  Manzoni,  II  Cinque  Maggio. 

When  men  learn  to  appreciate  moral  grandeur  the  easy  sentence  will  be  rendered, 
and  the  glory  of  the  warrior  will  be  scattered  like  the  unclean  dust  of  his  earthly 
body. 

I  Napier,  III.  543  $  Alison,  VII.  241  .  ||  Alison,  VII.  355. 


17 

have  fallen,  and  the  whole  plain  is  strewn  with  half-buried 
carcasses  of  men  and  horses,  intermingled  with  garments 
dyed  in  blood,  and  bones  gnawed  by  dogs  and  vultures. 
Who  can  follow  the  French  army,  in  their  dismal  retreat, 
avoiding  the  pursuing  spear  of  the  Cossack,  only  to  sink 
under  the  sharper  frost  and  ice,  in  a  temperature  below  zero, 
on  foot,  without  a  shelter  for  their  bodies,  and  famishing  on 
horse-flesh  and  a  miserable  compound  of  rye  and  snow-water  ? 
Still  later  we  behold  him  with  a  fresh  array,  contending 
against  new  forces  under  the  walls  of  Dresden ;  and  as  the 
Emperor  rides  over  the  field  of  battle,  having  supped  with 
the  king  of  Saxony  the  night  before,  ghastly  traces  of  the 
contest  of  the  preceding  day  are  to  be  seen  on  all  sides ;  out 
of  the  newly  made  graves  hands  and  arms  are  projecting, 
stark  and  stiff  above  the  earth.*  And  shortly  afterwards 
when  shelter  is  needed  for  the  troops,  direction  is  given  to 
occupy  the  Hospitals  for  the  Insane,  with  the  order  "  turn  out 
the  mad."t 

But  why  follow  further  in  this  career  of  blood  ?  There  is, 
however,  one  other  picture  of  the  atrocious,  though  natural 
consequences  of  war,  occurring  almost  within  our  own  day, 
that  I  would  not  omit.  Let  me  bring  to  your  mind  Genoa, 
called  the  Suburb,  City  of  palaces,  dear  to  the  memory  of 
American  childhood  as  the  birthplace  of  Christopher  Colum 
bus,  and  one  of  the  spots  first  enlightened  by  the  morning 
beams  of  civilization,  whose  merchants  were  princes,  and 
whose  rich  argosies,  in  those  early  days,  introduced  to  Europe, 
the  choicest  products  of  the  East,  the  linen  of  Egypt,  the 
spices  of  Arabia,  and  the  silks  of  Samarcand.  She  still  sits  in 
Queenly  pride,  as  she  did  then,  her  mural  crown  studded  with 
towers,  her  churches  rich  with  marble  floors  and  rarest  pic 
tures,  her  palaces  of  ancient  Doges  and  Admirals  yet  spared 
by  the  hand  of  Time,  her  close  streets,  thronged  by  one  hun 
dred  thousand  inhabitants,  at  the  feet  of  the  maritime  Alps,  as 
they  descend  to  the  blue  and  tideless  waters  of  the  Mediter 
ranean  sea,  leaning  with  her  back  against  their  strong  moun 
tain  sides,  overshadowed  by  the  foliage  of  the  fig-tree  and  the 
olive,  while  the  orange  and  lemon  fill  with  their  perfume  the 
air  where  reigns  perpetual  spring.  Who  can  contemplate 
such  a  city  without  delight  ?  Who  can  listen  to  the  story  of 
her  sorrows  without  a  pang  ? 

In  the  autumn  of  1799,  the  armies  of  the  French  Republic, 

*  Alison,  IX.  226.  t  Alison,  IX.  267. 

2 


18 

which  had  dominated  over  Italy,  were  driven  from  their  con 
quests,  and  compelled  with  shrunk  forces,  under  Massena,  to 
seek  shelter  within  the  walls  of  Genoa.     After  various  efforts 
by  the  Austrian  General  on  the  land,  aided  by  a  bombard 
ment  from  the  British  fleet  in  the  harbor,  to  force  the  strong 
defences  by  assault,  the  city  is  invested  by  a  strict  blockade. 
All  communication  with  the  country  is  cut  off  on  the  one  side, 
while  the  harbor  is  closed  by  the  ever-wakeful  British  watch 
dogs  of  war.     Within  the  beleaguered  and  unfortunate  city, 
are  the  peaceful  inhabitants,  more  than  those  of  Boston  in 
number,  besides  the  French  troops.     Provisions  soon  become 
scarce  ;  scarcity  sharpens  into  want,  till  fell  Famine,  bringing 
blindness  and  madness  in  her  train,  rages  like  an  Erinnys. 
Picture  to  yourself  this  large  population,  not  pouring  out  their 
lives  in  the  exulting  rush  of  battle,  but  wasting  at  noon-day, 
the  daughter  by  the  side  of  the  mother,  the  husband  by  the 
side  of  the  wife.     When  grain  and  rice  fail,  flax-seed,  millet, 
cocoas  and  almonds  are  ground  by  hand-mills  into  flour,  and 
even  bran,  baked  with  honey,  is  eaten,  not  to  satisfy,  but  to 
deaden  hunger.     During  the  siege,  but  before  the  last  ex 
tremities,  a  pound  of  horse-flesh  is  sold  for  32  cents ;  a.  pound 
of  bran  for  30  cents;  a  pound  of  flour  for  $1,75.     A  single 
bean  is  soon  sold  for  four  cents,  and  a  biscuit  of  three  ounces 
for  $2,25,  and  none  are  finally  to  be  had.     The  miserable 
soldiers,  after  devouring  all  the  horses  in  the  city,  are  reduced 
to  the  degradation  of  feeding  on  dogs,  cats,  rats  and  worms, 
which  are  eagerly  hunted  out  in  the  cellars  and  common 
sewers.     Happy  were  now,  exclaims  an  Italian  historian,  not 
those  who  lived,  but  those  who  died  !     The  day  is  dreary 
from  hunger;  the  night  more  dreary  still  from  hunger  ac 
companied   by  delirious  fancies.    Recourse   is  now  had  to 
herbs ;  monk's  rhubarb,  sorrel,  mallows,  wild  succory.    People 
of  every  condition,  women  of  noble  birth  and  beauty,  seek 
on  the  slope  of  the  mountain  enclosed  within  the  defences, 
those  aliments  which  nature  destined  solely  for  the  beasts. 
A  little  cheese  and  a  few  vegetables  are  all  that  can  be  af 
forded  to  the  sick  and  wounded,  those  sacred  stipendiaries 
upon  human  charity.     Men  and  women,  in  the  last  anguish 
of  despair,  now  fill  the  air  with  their  groans  and  shrieks ; 
some  in  spasms,  convulsions  and  contortions,  gasping  their 
last  breath  on  the  unpitying  stones  of  the  streets ;  alas !  not 
more  unpitying  than  man.     Children,  whom  a  dying  mother's 
arms  had  ceased  to  protect,  the  orphans  of  an  hour,  with 
piercing  cries,  seek  in  vain  the  compassion  of  the  passing 


19 

stranger  ;  but  none  pity  or  aid  them.  The  sweet  fountains  of 
sympathy  are  all  closed  by  the  selfishness  of  individual  dis 
tress.  In  the  general  agony,  the  more  impetuous  rush  out 
of  the  gates,  and  impale  themselves  on  the  Austrian  bayonets, 
while  others  precipitate  themselves  into  the  sea.  Others  still 
(pardon  the  dire  recital !)  are  driven  to  eat  their  shoes  and 
devour  the  leather  of  their  pouches,  and  the  horror  of  human 
flesh  has  so  far  abated  that  numbers  feed  like  cannibals,  on 
the  bodies  of  the  dead.* 

At  this  stage  the  French  general  capitulated,  claiming  and 
receiving  what  are  called  "  the  honors  of  war ;"  but  not 
before  twenty  thousand  innocent  persons,  old  and  young, 
women  and  children,  having  no  part  or  interest  in  the  war, 
had  died  the  most  horrible  of  deaths.  The  Austrian  flag 
floated  over  the  captured  Genoa  but  a  brief  span  of  time  ;  for 
Bonaparte  had  already  descended,  like  an  eagle,  from  the 
Alps,  and  in  less  than  a  fortnight  afterwards,  on  the  vast 
plains  of  Marengo,  shattered,  as  with  an  iron  mace,  the 
Austrian  empire  in  Italy. 

But  wasted  lands,  ruined  and  famished  cities,  and  slaught 
ered  armies  are  only  a  part  of  "  the  purple  testament  of  bleed 
ing  war."  Every  soldier  is  connected,  as  all  of  you,  by  dear 
ties  of  kindred,  love  and  friendship.  He  has  been  sternly 
summoned  from  the  warm  embraces  of  family.  To  him  there 
is,  perhaps,  an  aged  mother,  who  has  fondly  hoped  to  lean 
her  decaying  frame  upon  his  more  youthful  form ;  perhaps  a 


*  This  picture  has  been  drawn  from  the  animated  sketches  of  Botta  (History 
of  Italy,  under  Napoleon,  vol.  I.  chap.  I.)  Alison,  (Hist,  of  French  Rev.  vol.  IV. 
chap.  XXX.)  and  Arnold,  (Modern  History,  Lee.  IV.)  The  humanity  of  the  latter 
is  particularly  aroused  to  the  condemnation  of  this  most  atrocious  murder  of 
innocent  people,  and  he  suggests,  as  a  sufficient  remedy,  a  modification  of  the 
laws  of  war,  permitting  all  non-combatants  to  withdraw  from  a  blockaded  town  ! 
They  may  be  spared  in  this  way  the  languishing  death  by  starvation  ;  but  they 
must  desert  their  firesides,  their  pursuits,  all  that  makes  life  dear,  and  become 
homeless  exiles;  a  fate  little  better  than  the  former.  It  is  strange  that  Arnold's 
pure  soul  and  clear  judgment  did  not  recognize  the  great  truth,  that  all  war  is 
unrighteous  and  unlawful,  and  that  the  horrors  of  this  siege  are  its  natural  conse 
quence.  Laws  of  war  !  Laws  in  that  which  is  lawless  !  order  in  disorder  !  rules 
of  wrong  !  There  can  be  only  one  law  of  war  ;  that  is  the  great  law,  which  pro 
nounces  it  unwise,  unchristian  and  unjust.  The  term,  Laws,  or  Rights  of  War, 
has  been  referred  to  the  ancient  Greeks;  but,  it  is  believed,  that  they  are  not 
chargeable  with  the  invention  of  such  a  contradictory  combination  of  words. 
Grotms  was  misled,  and  it  would  seem  after  him,  Sir  James  Mackintosh  (Lecture 
on  the  Law  of  Nature  and  Nations)  into  the  belief  that  Aristotle  wrote  a  treatise 
AiaccuwjiiaT'a  rtoXf|iic<>i/,  by  a  corrupted  passage  of  Ammonius,  the  Grammarian,  in 
his  Treatise,  of  like  and  different  words,  where  there  is  Tto/uwcov  JVars,  instead  of 
rtoXtcov  States.  See  Barbeyrac's  note  to  $  38  of  the  Preliminary  Discourses  of  Gro- 
tius  on  the  Rights  of  Peace  and  War  ;  Selden,  Of  the  Law  of  Nature  and  Nations, 
juxta  Discipl.  Hebr.  Lib.  chap.  1,  p.  4. 


20 

wife,  whose  life  has  been  just  entwined  inseparably  with  his, 
now  condemned  to  wasting  despair ;  perhaps  brothers,  sisters. 
As  he  falls  on  the  field  of  battle,  must  not  all  these  rush  with 
his  blood  ?  But  who  can  measure  the  distress  that  radiates 
as  from  a  bloody  sun,  penetrating  innumerable  homes  ?  Who 
can  give  the  gauge  and  dimensions  of  this  incalculable 
sorrow  ?  Tell  me,  ye  who  have  felt  the  bitterness  of  parting 
with  dear  friends  and  kindred,  whom  you  have  watched 
tenderly  till  the  last  golden  sands  have  run  out,  and  the  great 
hour-glass  is  turned,  what  is  the  measure  of  your  anguish  ? 
Your  friend  has  departed,  soothed  by  kindness  arid  in  the 
arms  of  love ;  the  soldier  gasps  out  his  life,  with  no  friend 
near,  while  the  scowl  of  hate  darkens  all  that  he  beholds, 
darkens  his  own  departing  soul.  Who  can  forget  the  anguish 
that  fills  the  bosom  and  crazes  the  brain  of  Leonora,  in  the 
matchless  ballad  of  Burger,  who  seeks  in  vain  among  the 
returning  squadrons  for  her  lover  left  dead  on  Prague's 
ensanguined  plain  ?  But  every  field  of  blood  has  many  Leo 
noras.  From  a  poet  of  antiquity,  we  draw  a  vivid  picture  of 
homes  made  desolate  by  the  murders  of  battle.* 

But  through  the  bounds  of  Grecia's  land, 

Who  sent  her  sons  for  Troy  to  part, 

See  mourning,  with  much  suffering  heart, 

On  each  man's  threshold  stand, 

On  each  sad  hearth  in  Grecia's  land. 

Well  may  her  soul  with  grief  be  rent ; 

She  well  remembers  whom  she  sent, 

She  sees  them  not  return  ; 

Instead  of  men  to  each  man's  home, 

Urns  and  ashes  only  come, 

And  the  armour  which  they  wore; 

Sad  relics  to  their  native  shore. 

For  Mars,  the  barterer  of  the  lifeless  clay, 

Who  sells  for  gold  the  slain, 

And  holds  the  scale  in  battle's  doubtful  day, 

High  balanced  o'er  the  plain, 

From  Ilium's  walls  for  men  returns 

Ashes  and  sepulchral  urns  ; 

Ashes  wet  with  many  a  tear, 

Sad  relics  of  the  fiery  bier. 

Round  the  full  urns  the  general  groan 

Goes,  as  each  their  kindred  own. 

One  they  mourn  in  battle  strong, 

And  one,  that  'mid  the  armed  throng 

He  sunk  in  glory's  slaughtering  tide, 

And  for  another's  consort  died. 

***** 

Others  they  mourn  whose  monuments  stand 
By  Ilium's  walls  on  foreign  strand  ; 
Where  they  fell  in  beauty's  bloom, 
There  they  lie  in  hated  tomb ; 
Sunk  beneath  the  massy  mound. 
In  eternal  chambers  bound. 

*  Agamemnon  of  ^schylus ;  Chorus.     This  is  from  the  beautiful  translation  of 
John  bymmons. 


21 

III.  From  this  dreary  picture  of  the  miseries  of  war,  I  turn 
to  another  branch  of  the  subject. 

War  is  utterly  ineffectual  to  secure  or  advance  the  object  at 
which  it  aims.  The  misery  which  it  excites,  contributes  to 
no  end,  helps  to  establish  no  right,  and  therefore,  in  no  re 
spect  determines  justice  between  the  contending  nations. 

The  fruitlessness  and  vanity  of  war  appear  in  the  results 
of  the  great  wars  by  which  the  world  has  been  lacerated. 
After  long  struggles,  in  which  each  nation  has  inflicted  and 
received  incalculable  injury,  peace  has  been  gladly  obtained 
on  the  basis  of  the  condition  of  things  before  the  war. — 
Status  ante  Bellum.  Let  me  refer  for  an  example  to  our 
last  war  with  Great  Britain,  the  professed  object  of  which 
was  to  obtain  from  the  latter  Power  a  renunciation  of  her 
claim  to  impress  our  seamen.  The  greatest  number  of 
American  seamen  ever  officially  alleged  to  be  compulsorily 
serving  in  the  British  navy  was  about  eight  hundred.  To 
overturn  this  injustice,  the  whole  country  was  doomed,  for 
more  than  three  years,  to  the  accursed  blight  of  war.  Our 
commerce  was  driven  from  the  seas ;  the  resources  of  the 
land  were  drained  by  taxation ;  villages  on  the  Canadian 
frontier  were  laid  in  ashes ;  the  metropolis  of  the  Republic 
was  captured,  while  gaunt  distress  raged  every  where  within 
our  borders.  Weary  with  this  rude  trial,  our  Government 
appointed  Commissioners  to  treat  for  Peace,  under  these  in 
structions  :  "  Your  first  duty  will  be  to  conclude  peace  with 
Great  Britain,  and  you  are  authorized  to  do  it,  in  case  you 
obtain  a  satisfactory  stipulation  against  impressment,  one 
which  shall  secure  under  our  flag  protection  to  the  crew.  If 
this  encroachment  of  Great  Britain  is  not  provided  against, 
the  United  States  have  appealed  to  arms  in  vain."*  After 
wards,  despairing  of  extorting  from  Great  Britain  a  relin- 
quishment  of  the  unrighteous  claim,  and  foreseeing  only  an 
accumulation  of  calamities  from  an  inveterate  prosecution  of 
the  war,  our  Government  directed  their  negotiators,  in  con 
cluding  a  treaty  of  Peace,  "  to  omit  any  stipulation  on  the 
subject  of  impressment"  The  instructions  were  obeyed,  and 
the  Treaty  that  once  more  restored  to  us  the  blessings  of 
Peace,  which  we  had  rashly  cast  away,  and  which  the  coun 
try  hailed  with  an  intoxication  of  joy,  contained  no  allusion 
to  the  subject  of  impressment,  nor  did  it  provide  for  the  sur 
render  of  a  single  American  sailor  detained  in  the  service 

*  American  State  Papers,  vol.  VII.  p.  577. 


22 

of  the  British  navy,  and  thus,  by  the  confession  of  our  own 
Government,  "  the  United  States  had  appealed  to  arms  IN 

VAIN."* 

All  this  is  the  natural  result  of  an  appeal  to  war  in  order  to 
establish  justice.  Justice  implies  the  exercise  of  the  judg 
ment  in  the  determination  of  right.  Now  war  not  only  su 
persedes  the  judgment,  but  delivers  over  the  results  to 
superiority  of  force,  or  to  chance. 

Who  can  measure  beforehand  the  currents  of  the  heady 
fight?  In  common  language  we  speak  of  the  chances  of 
battle ;  and  soldiers,  whose  lives  are  devoted  to  this  harsh 
calling,  yet  speak  of  it  as  a  game.  The  Great  Captain  of 
our  age,  who  seemed  to  chain  victory  to  his  chariot  wheels, 
in  a  formal  address  to  his  officers,  on  entering  Russia,  says  : 
"  In  war,  for tune  has  an  equal  share  with  ability  in  procuring 
success."!  The  mighty  victory  of  Marerigo,  the  accident  of 
an  accident,  wrested  unexpectedly  at  the  close  of  the  day 
from  a  foe,  who  at  an  earlier  hour  was  successful,  must  have 
taught  him  the  uncertainty  of  war.  Afterwards  in  the  bit 
terness  of  his  spirit,  when  his  immense  forces  had  been 
shivered,  and  his  triumphant  eagles  driven  back  with  broken 
wing,  he  exclaimed,  in  that  remarkable  conversation  recorded 
by  the  Abbe  de  Pradt :  "  Well !  this  is  war.  High  in  the 
morning, — low  enough  at  night.  From  a  triumph  to  a  fall  is 
often  but  a  step.":}:  The  military  historian  of  the  Peninsular 
campaigns,  says :  "  Fortune  always  asserts  her  supremacy 
in  war,  and  often  from  a  slight  mistake,  such  disastrous  con 
sequences  flow,  that  in  every  age  and  in  every  nation,  the 
uncertainty  of  wars  has  been  proverbial  ;"§  and  again,  in 
another  place,  in  considering  the  conduct  of  Wellington,  he 
says :  «  A  few  hours'  delay,  an  accident,  a  turn  of  fortune, 
and  he  would  have  been  foiled  !  ay  !  but  this  is  war,  always 
dangerous  and  uncertain,  an  ever-rolling  wheel  and  armed 
with  scythes." ||  And  can  intelligent  man  look  for  justice  to 
an  ever-rolling  wheel  armed  with  scythes  ? 

The  character  of  war,  as  dependent  upon  chance,  might  be 
illustrated  from  every  page  of  history.  It  is  less  discerned, 
perhaps,  in  the  conflict  of  large  masses,  than  of  individu 
als,  though  equally  present  in  both.  How  capriciously  the 


*  This  sketch  has  been  drawn  from  the  War  and  Peace,  by  Hon.  William  Jay, 
a  gentleman  whose  various  writings  in  the  cause  of  humanity,  marked  by  rare 
power  of  logic,  accuracy  of  statement  and  elevated  sentiment,  will  shed  upon  his 
name  a  fame  not  inferior  to  that  of  his  illustrious  father. 

t  Alison,  VIII.  346.        \  Ib.,  IX.  239.        §  Napier,  VI.  687.        I!  Ib.,  IV.  477. 


wheel  turned  when  the  fortunes  of  Rome  were  staked  on  the 
combat  between  the  Horatii  and  Curiatii,  and  who,  at  one 
time,  could  have  augured  that  the  single  Horatius,  with  his 
two  slain  brothers  on  the  field,  would  have  overpowered  the 
three  living  enemies  ? 

But  the  most  interesting  illustration  is  to  be  found  in  the 
history  of  the  private  wars,  and  particularly  of  the  judicial 
combat,  or  of  trial  by  battle,  in  the  dark  ages.  The  object 
proposed  in  these  cases  was  precisely  the  professed  object  of 
modern  war,  the  determination  of  justice.  Did  time  permit, 
it  would  be  interesting  and  instructive  to  trace  the  curious 
analogies  between  this  early  ordeal  by  battle,  child  of  super 
stition  and  brute  force,  and  the  great  ordeal  of  war.*  Like 
the  other  ordeals,  by  burning  ploughshares,  by  holding  hot 
iron,  by  dipping  the  hand  in  hot  water,  or  hot  oil,  they  are 
both  a  presumptuous  appeal  to  Providence,  under  an  appre 
hension  and  hope,  that  Heaven  will  give  the  victory  to  him 
who  has  the  right.  The  monstrous  usage  of  trial  by  battle 
prevailed  in  the  early  modern  centuries  throughout  Europe  ; 
it  was  a  part  of  the  common  law  of  England  ;  and  though  it 
fell  into  desuetude,  overruled  by  the  advancing  spirit  of  civili 
zation,  still,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  English  law,  it  was  not 
legislatively  abolished,  until  in  1817  the  right  to  it  had  been 
distinctly  claimed  in  Westminster  Hall.  Abraham  Thornton, 
on  appeal  against  him  for  murder,  when  brought  into  court, 
pleaded  as  follows :  "  Not  guilty,  and  I  am  ready  to  defend 
the  same  by  my  body ;"  and  thereupon  taking  off  his  glove, 
he  threw  it  upon  the  floor  of  the  court.  The  appellant  did 
not  choose  to  submit  to  this  trial,  and  abandoned  his  proceed 
ings.  In  the  next  session  of  Parliament,  trial  by  battle  was 
abolished  in  England.!  The  Attorney  General,  on  introduc 
ing  the  bill  for  this  purpose  remarked,  that,  "  if  the  party  had 
persevered  he  had  no  doubt  the  legislature  would  have  felt  it 
their  imperious  duty  to  interfere  and  pass  an  ex  post  facto  law, 
to  prevent  so  degrading  a  spectacle  from  taking  place  "\ 

To  an  early  monarch  of  France  belongs  the  honor  of  first 
interposing  the  royal  authority,  for  the  entire  suppression 
within  his  jurisdiction  of  this  impious  usage,  so  universally 
adopted,  so  dear  to  the  nobility,  and  so  profoundly  rooted  in 
the  institutions  of  the  Feudal  Age.  And  here  let  me  pause 
with  reverence,  as  I  mention  the  name  of  St.  Louis,  a  prince, 


*  See  Appendix,  Note  B.  t  Blackstone,  Com.  III.  337,  Chitty's  note. 

\  Annual  Register,  Vol.  61.  p.  52  (1819). 


24 

whose  unenlightened  errors  may  find  easy  condemnation  in 
our  age  of  larger  toleration  and  wider  knowledge,  but  whose 
firm  and  upright  soul,  whose  exalted  sense  of  justice,  whose 
fatherly  regard  for  the  happiness  of  his  people,  whose  respect 
for  the  rights  of  others,  whose  conscience  void  of  offence 
before  God  and  man,  make  him  foremost  among  Christian 
rulers,  the  highest  example  for  a  Christian  prince  or  a  Chris 
tian  people.  He  was  of  conscience  all-compact,  subjecting 
all  that  he  did  to  the  single  and  exclusive  test  of  moral  recti 
tude,  disregarding  all  considerations  of  worldly  advantage,  all 
fear  of  worldly  consequences. 

His  soul,  thus  tremblingly  sensitive  to  questions  of  right, 
was  shocked  by  the  judicial  combat.  In  his  sight,  it  was  a 
sin  thus  to  tempt  God,  by  demanding  of  him  a  miracle,  when 
ever  judgment  was  to  be  pronounced.  In  1260  he  assembled 
a  parliament,  where  he  issued  an  ordinance,  to  take  effect 
throughout  the  royal  dominion,  in  which  he  expressly  says : 
"  We  forbid  to  all  persons  throughout  our  dominions  the 
trial  by  battle;  and,  instead  of  battles,  we  establish  proofs 
by  witnesses ;  and  we  do  not  take  away  the  other  good  and 
loyal  proofs  which  have  been  used  in  lay  courts  to  this  day. 

*  AND  THESE  BATTLES  WE  ABOLISH  IN  OUR 

DOMINIONS  FOR  EVER."* 

Such  were  the  restraints  on  the  royal  authority,  that  this 
Ordinance  was  confined  in  its  operation  to  the  demesnes  of 
the  King;  and  did  not  extend  to  those  of  the  barons  and 
feudatories  of  the  realm.  But  where  the  power  of  St.  Louis 
did  not  reach,  there  he  labored  by  his  example,  his  influence 
and  his  express  intercession.  He  treated  with  many  of  the 
great  vassals  of  the  crown,  and  induced  them  to  renounce 
this  unnatural  usage.  Though  for  many  years  later  France 
continued  in  some  parts  to  be  vexed  by  it,  still  its  overthrow 
commenced  with  the  Ordinance  of  St.  Louis. 

Honor  and  blessings  attend  the  name  of  this  truly  Christian 
King ;  who  submitted  all  his  actions  to  the  Heaven-descend 
ed  sentiment  of  duty;  who  began  a  long  and  illustrious 
reign  by  renouncing  and  restoring  a  portion  of  the  conquests 

*  "  Nous  deffendons  a  tons  les  batailles  par  tout  nostre  demengne  (domaine);  mes 
nous  n'ostons  mie  les  claims,  les  respons,  les  convenants,  ne  tous  autres  con- 
venants  que  1'en  fait  en  court  laie,  siques  a  ore  selon  les  usages  de  divers  pays, 
fors  que  nous  ostons  les  batailles  ;  et  en  lieu  des  batailles  nous  melons  prueves  de 
tesmoms;  et  si  n'oston  pas  les  autres  bones  prueves  et  loyaux  qui  out  este  en 
court  laie  siques  a  ore.  <  *  Et  ces  batailles  nous  ostons  en  mestre  demaigne 

tmyovrs."  Recueil  des  Ordonnances,  t.  I.  p.  86—93.  Guizot,  Histoire  de  la 
Civilization  en  France,  IV.  162—164. 


25 

of  his  predecessor,  saying  to  those  about  him,  whose  souls 
did  not  ascend  to  the  height  of  his  morality,  "  I  know  that 
the  predecessors  of  the  King  of  England  have  lost  by  the 
right  of  conquest  the  land  which  I  hold ;  and  the  land  which 
I  give  him,  I  do  not  give  because  I  am  bound  to  him  or  his 
heirs,  but  to  put  love  between  my  children  and  his  children, 
who  are  cousin-germans ;  and  it  seems  to  me  that  what  I 
thus  give,  I  employ  to  good  purpose  !"*  Honor  to  him  who 
never  grasped  by  force  or  cunning  any  new  acquisition; 
who  never  sought  advantage  from  the  turmoils  and  dissen 
sions  of  his  neighbors,  but  studied  to  allay  them ;  who,  first 
of  Christian  Princes,  rebuked  the  spirit  of  war,  saying  to 
those  who  would  have  him  profit  by  the  dissensions  of  his 
neighbors,  "  Blessed  are  the  Peace-makers  ;"t  who  abolished 
trial  by  battle  throughout  his  dominions ;  who  aimed  to  do 
justice  to  all  his  people,  and  to  all  neighbors,  and  in  the  ex 
tremity  of  his  last  illness,  on  the  sickening  sands  of  Tunis, 
among  the  bequests  of  his  spirit,  enjoined  on  his  son  and  suc 
cessor,  "  in  maintaining  justice,  to  be  inflexible  and  loyal, 
neither  turning  to  the  right  hand  nor  to  the  left  !"J 

The  history  of  the  trial  by  battle  will  illustrate  and  bring 
home  to  your  minds  the  chances  of  war,  and  the  consequent 
folly  and  wickedness  of  submitting  any  question  to  its  arbi 
trament.  As  we  revert  to  those  early  periods  in  which  it 
prevailed,  our  minds  are  impressed  by  the  barbarism  which 
we  behold ;  we  recoil,  with  horror,  from  the  awful  subjection 
of  justice  to  brute  force  ;  from  the  impious  profanation  of  the 
character  of  God  in  deeming  him  present  in  these  outrages ; 
from  the  moral  degradation  out  of  which  they  sprang,  and 
which  they  perpetuated ;  we  involve  ourselves  in  our  self- 
complacent  virtue,  and  thank  God  that  we  are  not  as  these 
men,  that  ours  is,  indeed,  an  age  of  light,  while  theirs  was  an 
age  of  darkness  ! 

But  are  we  aware  that  this  monstrous  and  impious  usage, 
which  our  enlightened  reason  so  justly  condemns  in  the  cases 
of  individuals,  is  openly  avowed  by  our  own  country,  and  by 
the  other  countries  of  the  earth,  as  a  proper  mode  of  deter 
mining  justice  between  them  ?  Be  upon  our  heads  and  upon 
our  age  the  judgment  of  barbarism,  which  we  pronounce 


*Joinville,  Hist.de  St.  Louis,  p.  142 ;  Guizot,  Histoire  de  la  Civilization  en 
France,  Tome  IV,  151. 

t  Benoist  soient  tuit  li  apaiseur,  Joinville,  pp.  143,  144;  Guizot. 
t  Sismondi,  Histoire  des  Fran$.  VIII.  196. 


26 

upon  those  that  have  gone  before  !  At  this  moment,  in  this 
period  of  light,  when  the  noon-day  sun  of  civilization  seems, 
to  the  contented  souls  of  many,  to  be  standing  still  in  the 
heavens,  as  upon  Gibeon,  the  relations  between  nations  are 
governed  by  the  same  rules  of  barbarous,  brutal  force,  which 
once  prevailed  between  individuals.  The  dark  ages  have 
not  passed  away ;  Erebus  and  black  Night,  born  of  Chaos, 
still  brood  over  the  earth ;  nor  shall  we  hail  the  clear  day, 
until  the  mighty  hearts  of  the  nations  shall  be  touched,  as 
those  of  children,  and  the  whole  earth,  individuals  and 
nations  alike,  shall  acknowledge  one  and  the  same  rule  of 
Right. 

Who  has  told  you,  fond  man !  to  regard  that  as  a  glory 
when  performed  by  a  nation,  which  is  condemned  as  a  crime 
and  a  barbarism,  when  committed  by  an  individual  ?  In  what 
vain  conceit  of  wisdom  and  virtue  do  you  find  this  incongru 
ous  morality?  Where  is  it  declared,  that  God,  who  js  no 
respecter  of  persons,  is  a  respecter  of  multitudes  ?  Whence 
do  you  draw  these  partial  laws  of  a  powerful  and  impartial 
God  ?  Man  is  immortal ;  but  States  are  mortal.  He  has  a 
higher  destiny  than  States.  Shall  States  be  less  amenable  to 
the  great  moral  laws  ?  Each  individual  is  an  atom  of  the 
mass.  Must  not  the  mass  be  like  the  individuals  of  which  it 
is  composed  ?  Shall  the  mass  do  what  individuals  may  not 
do  ?  No.  The  same  moral  laws  which  govern  individuals 
govern  masses,  as  the  same  laws  in  nature  prevail  over  large 
and  small,  controlling  the  fall  of  an  apple  and  the  orbits  of 
the  planets.  It  was  the  beautiful  discovery  of  Newton,  that 
gravity  is  a  universal  property  of  matter,  a  law  obeyed  by 
every  particle  in  reference  to  every  other  particle,  and  con 
necting  the  celestial  mechanism  with  terrestrial  phenomena. 
So  the  Rule  of  Right,  which  binds  the  single  individual, 
binds  two  or  three  when  gathered  together — binds  conven 
tions  and  congregations  of  men — binds  villages,  towns  and 
cities — binds  states,  nations  and  empires — clasps  the  whole 
human  family  in  its  seven-fold  embrace ;  nay  more, 

Beyond  the  flaming  bounds  of  place  and  time, 
The  living  throne,  the  sapphire  blaze, 

it  binds  the  angels  of  Heaven,  the  Seraphim,  full  of  love,  the 
Cherubim,  full  of  knowledge :  above  all,  it  binds,  in  self- 
imposed  bonds,  a  just  and  omnipotent  God.  It  is  of  this,  and 
not  of  any  earthly  law,  that  Hooker  speaks  in  that  magnifi 
cent  period  which  sounds  like  an  anthem ;  «  Of  law  no  less 


27 

can  be  said,  than  that  her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God,  her  voice 
the  harmony  of  the  world ;  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do 
her  homage,  the  very  least  as  feeling  her  care,  the  greatest  as 
not  exempted  from  her  power ;  both  angels  and  men,  and 
creatures  of  what  condition  soever,  though  each  in  different 
sort  and  manner,  yet  all  with  uniform  consent  admiring  her 
as  the  mother  of  their  peace  and  joy." 

We  are  struck  with  horror  and  our  hair  stands  on  end,  at 
the  report  of  a  single  murder ;  we  think  of  the  soul  that  has 
been  hurried  to  its  final  account ;  we  seek  the  murderer  ;  and 
the  law  puts  forth  all  its  energies  to  secure  his  punishment. 
Viewed  in  the  clear  light  of  truth,  what  are  war  and  battle 
but  organized  murder ;  murder  of  malice  afore-thought ;  in 
cold  blood  ;  through  the  operation  of  an  extensive  machinery 
of  crime ;  with  innumerable  hands ;  at  incalculable  cost  of 
money ;  through  subtle  contrivances  of  cunning  and  skill ; 
or  by  the  savage  brutal  assault  ?  Was  not  the  Scythian  right, 
when  he  said  to  Alexander,  "  Thou  boastest,  that  the  only 
design  of  thy  marches  is  to  extirpate  robbers ;  thou  thyself 
art  the  greatest  robber  in  the  world."  Among  us  one  class 
of  sea-robbers  is  hanged  as  pirates ;  another  is  hailed  with 
acclamation : 

Ille  crucem  sceleris  pretium  tulit,  hie  diadema.* 

It  was  amidst  the  thunders  which  made  Sinai  tremble,  that 
God  declared  ;  "  Thou  shalt  not  kill ;"  and  the  voice  of  these 
thunders,  with  this  commandment,  has  been  prolonged  to  our 
own  day  in  the  echoes  of  Christian  churches.  What  mortal 
shall  restrain  the  application  of  these  words  ?  Who  on  earth 
is  empowered  to  vary  or  abridge  the  commandments  of  God  ? 
Who  shall  presume  to  declare,  that  this  injunction  was  directed, 
not  to  nations,  but  to  individuals  only ;  not  to  many  but  to 
one  only;  that  one  man  may  not  kill,  but  that  many  may; 
that  it  is  forbidden  to  each  individual  to  destroy  the  life  of  a 
single  human  being,  but  that  it  is  not  forbidden  to  a  nation  to 
cut  off  by  the  sword  a  whole  people  ? 

When  shall  the  St.  Louis  of  the  nations  arise  ?  the  Chris 
tian  ruler  or  Christian  people,  who  shall  proclaim  to  the 
whole  earth,  that  henceforward  for  ever  the  great  trial  by 
battle  shall  cease;  that  it  is  the  duty  and  policy  of  nations  to 


*  Juvenal,  Sat.  XIII.  105.  The  ancient  laws  of  Ina  recognize  numbers  as  the 
only  distinction  between  an  army  and  a  band  of  robbers ;  "  Fures  appellamus 
societatem  septem  hominum  \  etseptem  usque  ad  XXXV  turmam;  et  deinde  esto 
exercitus." 


28 

establish  love  between  each  other ;  and  in  all  respects,  at  all 
times,  towards  all  persons,  as  well  their  own  people,  as  the 
people  of  other  lands,  to  be  governed  by  the  sacred  rules  of 
right,  as  between  man  and  man  !  May  God  speed  the  com 
ing  of  that  day ! 

I  have  already  alluded,  in  the  early  part  of  my  remarks,  to 
some  of  the  obstacles  to  be  encountered  by  the  advocate  of 
Peace.  One  of  these  is  the  warlike  tone  of  the  literature, 
by  which  our  minds  and  opinions  are  formed.  The  world 
has  supped  so  full  with  battles,  that  all  its  inner  modes  of 
thought,  and  many  of  its  rules  of  conduct  seem  to  be  incar 
nadined  with  blood;  as  the  bones  of  swine,  fed  on  madder, 
are  said  to  become  red.  But  I  now  pass  this  by,  though  a 
most  fruitful  theme,  and  hasten  to  other  topics.  I  propose 
to  consider  in  succession,  very  briefly,  some  of  those  influ 
ences  and  prejudices,  which  are  most  powerful  in  keeping 
alive  the  delusion  of  war. 

1.  One  of  the  most  important  of  these  is  the  prejudice  to 
a  certain  extent  in  its  favor  founded  on  the  belief  in  its  ne 
cessity.  The  consciences  of  all  good  men  condemn  it  as  a 
crime,  a  sin ;  even  the  soldier,  whose  profession  it  is,  con 
fesses  that  it  is  to  be  resorted  to  only  in  the  last  necessity. 
But  a  benevolent  and  omnipotent  God  cannot  render  it 
necessary  to  commit  a  crime.  When  war  is  called  a  neces 
sity,  it  is  meant,  of  course,  that  its  object  cannot  be  gained 
in  any  other  way.  Now  I  think  that  it  has  already  appeared 
with  distinctness,  approaching  demonstration,  that  the  pro 
fessed  object  of  war,  which  is  justice  between  nations,  is  in 
no  respect  promoted  by  war ;  that  force  is  not  justice,  nor  in 
any  way  conducive  to  justice  ;  that  the  eagles  of  victory  can 
be  only  the  emblems  of  successful  force  and  not  of  estab 
lished  right.*  Justice  can  be  obtained  only  by  the  exercise 
of  the  reason  and  judgment;  but  these  are  silent  in  the  din 
of  arms.  Justice  is  without  passion ;  but  war  lets  loose  all 
the  worst  passions  of  our  nature,  while  "  high  arbiter  Chance 
more  embroils  the  fray."  The  age  has  passed  in  which  a 
nation,  within  the  enchanted  circle  of  civilization,  will  make 


*  Le  rccours  ;l  la  force,  soit  par  le  combat  judiciaire,  soit  par  la  guerre  privee, 
etait  le  mode  le  plus  commun  de  mettre  fin  aux  proces.  Mais  la  force  n'est  pas 
la  justice  ;  les  plus  ^grossiers  esprits  ne  les  confondent  pas  long  temps.  La  neces- 
sited'un  autre  systf;me  judiciaire,  d'un  veritable  jugement,  devint  bientot  evidente. 
Guizot,  Histoire  de  la  Civilization,  Tome  IV.  89. 


29 

war  upon  its  neighbor,  for  any  professed  purpose  of  booty  or 
vengeance.  It  does  "  nought  in  hate,  but  all  in  honor." 
There  are  professions  even  of  tenderness  which  mingle  with 
the  first  mutterings  of  the  dismal  strife.  Each  of  the  two 
governments,  as  if  conscience-struck  at  the  abyss  into  which 
it  is  about  to  plunge,  seeks  to  fix  on  the  other  the  charge  of 
hostile  aggression,  and  to  assume  to  itself  the  ground  of  de 
fending  some  right ;  some  stolen  Texas ;  some  distant,  worth 
less  Oregon.  Like  Pontius  Pilate,  it  vainly  washes  its  hands 
of  innocent  blood,  and  straightway  allows  a  crime  at  which 
the  whole  heavens  are  darkened,  and  two  kindred  countries 
are  severed,  as  the  veil  of  the  Temple  was  rent  in  twain. 

The  various  modes,  which  have  been  proposed  for  the  de 
termination  of  disputes  between  nations,  are  Negotiation, 
Arbitration,  Mediation,  and  a  Congress  of  Nations  ;*  all  of 
them  practicable  and  calculated  to  secure  peaceful  justice. 
Let  it  not  be  said,  then,  that  war  is  a  necessity ;  and  may 
our  country  aim  at  the  true  glory  of  taking  the  lead  in  the 
recognition  of  these,  as  the  only  proper  modes  of  determin 
ing  justice  between  nations  !  Such  a  glory,  unlike  the  earthly 
fame  of  battles,  shall  be  immortal  as  the  stars,  dropping  per 
petual  light  upon  the  souls  of  men  ! 

2.  Another  prejudice  in  favor  of  war  is  founded  on  the. 
practice  of  nations,  past  and  present.  There  is  no  crime  or 
enormity  in  morals,  which  may  not  find  the  support  of  human 
example,  often  on  a  most  extended  scale.  But  it  is  not  to  be 
urged  in  our  day  that  we  are  to  look  for  a  standard  of  duty 
in  the  conduct  of  vain,  mistaken,  fallible  man.  It  is  not  in 
the  power  of  man,  by  any  subtle  alchemy,  to  transmute 
wrong  into  right.  Because  war  is  according  to  the  practice 
of  the  world,  it  does  not  follow  that  it  is  right.  For  ages 
the  world  worshipped  false  gods ;  but  these  gods  were  not 
the  less  false,  because  all  bowed  before  them.  At  this  mo 
ment  the  larger  portion  of  mankind  are  Heathen  ;  but  Hea 
thenism  is  not  true.  It  was  once  the  practice  of  nations  to 
slaughter  prisoners  of  war ;  but  even  the  spirit  of  war  recoils 
now  from  this  bloody  sacrifice.  In  Sparta,  theft,  instead  of 
being  execrated  as  a  crime,  was  dignified  into  an  art  and  an 
accomplishment,  and  as  such  admitted  into  the  system  of 
youthful  education ;  and  even  this  debasing  practice,  estab- 


*For  a  sketch  of  the  labors  and  examples  which  tend  to  the  establishment  of  a 
System  of  Arbitration,  or  a  Congress  of  Nations,  see  Appendix,  Note  C. 


30 

lished  by  local  feeling,  is  enlightened,  like  war,  by  an  in 
stance  of  unconquerable  firmness,  which  is  a  barbaric  coun 
terfeit  of  virtue.  The  Spartan  youth,  who  allowed  the  fox 
concealed  under  his  robe  to  eat  into  his  heart,  is  an  example 
of  mistaken  fortitude,  not  unlike  that  which  we  are  asked  to 
admire  in  the  soldier.  Other  illustrations  of  this  character 
crowd  upon  the  mind ;  but  I  will  not  dwell  upon  them.  We 
turn  with  disgust  from  Spartan  cruelty  and  the  wolves  of 
Taygetus ;  from  the  awful  cannibalism  of  the  Feejee  Islands ; 
from  the  profane  rites  of  innumerable  savages ;  from  the 
crushing  Juggernaut ;  from  the  Hindoo  widow  lighting  her 
funeral  pyre  ;  from  the  Indian  dancing  at  the  stake.  But  had 
not  all  these,  in  their  respective  places  and  days,  like  war,  the 
sanction  of  established  usage  ? 

But  it  is  often  said,  "  Let  us  not  be  wiser  than  our  fathers." 
Rather  let  us  try  to  excel  our  fathers  in  wisdom.  Let  us  imi 
tate  what  in  them  was  good,  but  let  us  not  bind  ourselves  as 
in  the  chains  of  Fate,  by  their  imperfect  example.  There 
are  principles  which  are  higher  than  human  examples.  Ex 
amples  are  to  be  followed  when  they  accord  with  the  sugges 
tions  of  duty.  But  he  is  unwise  and  wicked,  who  attempts 
to  lean  upon  these,  rather  than  upon  those  truths,  which,  like 
the  Everlasting  Arm,  cannot  fail ! 

In  all  modesty  be  it  said,  we  have  lived  to  little  purpose, 
if  we  are  not  wiser  than  the  generations  that  have  gone  be 
fore  us.  It  is  the  grand  distinction  of  man  that  he  is  a  pro 
gressive  being ;  that  his  reason  at  the  present  day  is  not 
merely  the  reason  of  a  single  human  being,  but  that  of  the 
whole  human  race,  in  all  ages  from  which  knowledgehas  de 
scended,  in  all  lands  from  which  it  has  been  borne  away.  We 
are  the  heirs  to  an  inheritance  of  knowledge,  which  has  been 
accumulating  from  generation  to  generation.  The  child  is  now 
taught  at  his  mother's  knee  the  orbits  of  the  heavenly  bodies, 

Where  worlds  on  worlds  compose  one  Universe; 

the  nature  of  this  globe  ;  the  character  of  the  tribes  of  men 
by  which  it  is  covered,  and  the  geography  of  nations,  all  of 
which  were  far  beyond  the  ken  of  the  most  learned  of  other 
days.  It  is,  therefore,  true,  as  has  been  said,  that  antiquity 
is  the  real  infancy  of  man :  it  is  then  that  he  is  immature, 
ignorant,  wayward,  childish,  selfish,  finding  his  chief  happi 
ness  in  pleasures  of  sense,  all  unconscious  of  the  higher 
delights  of  knowledge  and  of  love.  The  animal  part  of  his 


31 

nature  reigns  over  his  soul,  and  he  is  driven  on  by  the  gross 
impulses  of  force.  He  seeks  contests,  war  and  blood.  But 
we  are  advanced  from  the  childhood  of  man ;  reason  and 
the  kindlier  virtues  of  age,  repudiating  and  abhorring  force, 
now  bear  sway.  We  are  the  true  Ancients.  The  single 
lock  on  the  battered  forehead  of  Old  Time  is  thinner  now  than 
when  our  fathers  attempted  to  grasp  it ;  the  hour-glass  has 
been  turned  often  since  ;  the  scythe  is  heavier  laden  with  the 
work  of  death. 

Let  us  cease,  then,  to  look  for  a  lamp  to  our  feet,  in  the 
feeble  tapers  that  glimmer  in  the  sepulchres  of  the  Past. 
Rather  let  us  hail  those  ever-burning  lights  above,  in  whose 
beams  is  the  brightness  of  noon-day  ! 

3.  There  is  a  topic  to  which  I  allude  with  diffidence ;  but 
in  the  spirit  of  frankness.  It  is  the  influence  which  war, 
though  condemned  by  Christ,  has  derived  from  the  Christian 
Church.  When  Constantine  on  one  of  his  marches,  at  the 
head  of  his  army,  beheld  the  luminous  trophy  of  the  cross  in 
the  sky  right  above  the  meridian  sun,  inscribed  with  these 
words,  By  this  conquer,  had  his  soul  been  penetrated  by  the 
true  spirit  of  Him,  whose  precious  symbol  it  was,  he  would 
have  found  in  it  no  inspiration  to  the  spear  and  the  sword. 
He  would  have  received  the  lesson  of  self-sacrifice,  as  from 
the  lips  of  the  Saviour,  and  would  have  learned  that  it  was 
not  by  earthly  weapons  that  any  true  victory  was  to  be  won. 
The  pride  of  conquest  would  have  been  rebuked,  and  the 
bauble  sceptre  of  Empire  would  have  fallen  from  his  hands. 
By  this  conquer  ;  that  is,  by  patience,  suffering,  forgiveness 
of  evil,  by  all  those  virtues  of  which  the  cross  is  the  affecting 
token,  conquer  ;  and  the  victory  shall  be  greater  than  any  in 
the  annals  of  Roman  conquest ;  it  may  not  find  a  place  in  the 
records  of  man ;  but  it  shall  appear  in  the  register  of  ever 
lasting  life. 

The  Christian  Church,  after  the  first  centuries  of  its  exist 
ence,  failed  to  discern  the  peculiar  spiritual  beauty  of  the  faith 
which  it  professed.  Like  Constantine,  it  found  new  incen 
tives  to  war  in  the  religion  of  Peace  ;  and  such  has  been  its 
character,  let  it  be  said  fearlessly,  even  to  our  own  day.  The 
Pope  of  Rome,  the  asserted  head  of  the  church,  the  Vice 
gerent  of  Christ  on  earth,  whose  seal  is  a  fisherman,  on  whose 
banner  is  a  LAMB  before  the  HOLY  CROSS,  assumed  the 
command  of  armies,  often  mingling  the  thunders  of  battle 


32 

with  those  of  the  Vatican.  The  dagger  which  projected  from 
the  sacred  vestments  of  the  Archbishop  de  Retz,  as  he  ap 
peared  in  the  streets  of  Paris,  was  called  by  the  people,  "  the 
Archbishop's  Prayer  Book."  We  read  of  mitred  prelates  in 
armor  of  proof,  and  seem  still  to  catch  the  jingle  of  the  golden 
spurs  of  the  bishops  in  the  streets  of  Cologne.  The  sword  of 
knighthood  was  consecrated  by  the  church ;  and  priests  were 
often  the  expert  masters  in  military  exercises.  I  have  seen  at 
the  gates  of  the  Papal  Palace  in  Rome,  a  constant  guard  of 
Swiss  soldiers ;  I  have  seen,  too,  in  our  own  streets  a  show, 
as  incongruous  and  as  inconsistent,  a  pastor  of  a  Christian 
church  parading  as  the  chaplain  of  a  military  array  !  Ay  ! 
more  than  this ;  some  of  us  have  heard,  within  a  few  short 
weeks,  in  a  Christian  pulpit,  from  the  lips  of  an  eminent 
Christian  divine,  a  sermon  in  which  we  are  encouraged  to 
serve  the  God  of  Battles,*  and,  as  citizen  soldiers,  to  fight 
for  Peace  ;t  a  sentiment,  which  can  find  no  support  in  the 
Religion  of  Him  who  has  expressly  enjoined,  when  one  cheek 
is  smitten  to  turn  the  other,  and  to  which  we  listen  with  pain 
and  mortification  from  the  lips  of  one,  who  has  voluntarily 
become  a  minister  of  Christian  truth ;  alas !  in  his  mind,  in 
ferior  to  that  of  the  Heathen,  who  declared  that  he  preferred 
the  unjustest  peace  to  the  jus  test  war.% 

And  who  is  the  God  of  Battles  !  It  is  Mars  ;  man-slaying, 
blood-polluted,  city-smiting  Mars! §  Him  we  cannot  adore. 
It  is  not  He  who  binds  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades, 

*  Deo  imperante,  quern  adesse  bellantibus  credunt,  are  the  appropriate  words  of 
astonishment  by  which  Tacitus  describes  the  barbarous  superstition  of  the  an- 
cient  Germans. — De  Moribus,  Germ.  $  7.  It  was  afterwards  on  the  German  soil, 
that  Frederick  of  Prussia  said  that  he  always  found  the  God  of  Battles  to  be  on 
the  side  of  the  strongest  regiments.  When  it  was  proposed  to  him  to  adopt  as 
an  inscription  for  his  banner,  that  was  soon  to  flout  the  sky  of  Silesia,  "  For  God 
and  Country,"  he  rejected  the  first  words — saying  it  was  not  proper  to  introduce 
the  name  of  the  Deity  in  the  quarrels  of  men. 

t  Lord  Abington  said,  May  30th,  1794,  in  the  House  of  Lords  ;  "  The  best  road 
to  Peace,  my  Lords,  is  War  ;  and  War  carried  on  in  the  same  manner  in  which 
we  are  taught  to  worship  our  Creator,  namely,  with  all  our  souls,  with  all  our 
minds,  with  all  our  hearts,  and  with  all  our  strength  !" 

t  Iniquissimam  paccm,  justissimo  bcllo  antefcro,  are  the  words  of  Cicero.  Only 
eight  days  after  Franklin  had  placed  his  name  to  the  Treaty  of  Peace,  which 
acknowledged  the  Independence  of  his  country,  he  wrote  to  a  friend;  "may  we 
never  see  another  war,  for,  in  my  opinion,  there  never  was  a  good  war,  nor  a  bad 
peace."  It  was  with  great  reluctance,  that  I  here  seemed  to  depart  for  a  moment 
from  so  great  a  theme  to  allude  to  any  person  ;  but  the  person  and  the  theme 
here  become  united.  I  cannot  refrain  from  the  effort  to  tear  this  iron  branch  of 
War  from  the  golden  tree  of  Christian  truth,  even  though  a  voice  come  forth  from 
the  breaking  bough.  For  a  few  observations  on  Dr.  Vinton's  Sermon,  see  Ap 
pendix,  notes  A.  and  B. 


33 

and  looses  the  bands  of  Orion ;  who  causes  the  sun  to  shine 
on  the  just  and  the  unjust;  who  tempers  the  wind  to  the 
shorn  lamb ;  who  distils  the  oil  of  gladness  upon  every  upright 
heart ;  the  fountain  of  Mercy  and  Goodness,  the  God  of  Jus 
tice  and  Love.  The  God  of  Battles  is  not  the  God  of  Chris 
tians;  to  him  can  ascend  none  of  the  prayers  of  Christian 
thanksgiving  ;  for  him  there  can  be  no  words  of  worship  in 
Christian  temples ;  no  swelling  anthem  to  peal  the  note  of 
praise. 

There  is  now  floating  in  this  harbor  a  ship  of  the  line  of 
our  country.  Many  of  you  have,  perhaps,  pressed  its  deck, 
and  observed  with  admiration  the  completeness  which  pre 
vails  in  all  its  parts ;  its  lithe  masts  and  complex  net- work  of 
ropes ;  its  thick  wooden  walls,  within  which  are  more  than 
the  soldiers  of  Ulysses ;  its  strong  defences,  and  its  numerous 
dread  and  rude-throated  engines  of  war.  There  each  Sab 
bath,  amidst  this  armament  of  blood,  while  the  wave  comes 
gently  plashing  against  the  frowning  sides,  from  a  pulpit  sup 
ported  by  a  cannon,  or  by  the  side  of  a  cannon,  in  repose 
now,  but  ready  to  awake  its  dormant  thunder,  charged  with 
death,  a  Christian  preacher  addresses  the  officers  and  crew ! 
May  his  instructions  carry  strength  and  succor  to  their  souls ! 
But  he  cannot  pronounce  in  such  a  place,  those  highest  words 
of  the  Master  he  professes, "  Blessed  are  the  Peace-makers;" 
"  Love  your  Enemies ;"  "  Render  not  evil  for  evil."  Like 
Macbeth's  "  Amen,"  they  must  stick  in  his  throat. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  strange  and  unblessed  con 
junction  of  the  clergy  with  war,  has  had  no  little  influence  in 
blinding  the  world  to  the  truth  now  beginning  to  be  recog 
nized,  that  Christianity  forbids  war  in  all  cases. 

Individual  interests  are  mixed  up  with  prevailing  errors, 
and  are  concerned  in  maintaining  them  to  such  an  extent,  that 
it  is  not  surprising  that  military  men  yield  reluctantly  to  this 
truth.  They  are  naturally  in  this  matter,  like  lawyers,  ac 
cording  to  Voltaire,  "  the  conservators  of  ancient  barbarous 
usages ;"  but  that  these  usages  should  obtain  countenance  in 
the  Christian  church  is  one  of  those  anomalies,  which  make 
us  feel  the  weakness  of  our  nature  and  the  elevation  of 
Christian  truth.  It  is  important  to  observe,  as  an  unanswer 
able  fact  of  history,  that  for  some  time  after  the  Apostles, 
while  the  lamp  of  Christianity  burnt  pure  and  bright,  not 
only  the  Fathers  of  the  church  held  it  unlawful  for  Chris 
tians  to  bear  arms,  but  those  who  came  within  its  pale, 
abstained  from  the  use  of  arms,  although  at  the  cost  of  their 
3 


34 

lives.  Marcellus  the  Centurion,  threw  down  his  military  belt 
at  the  head  of  the  legion,  and  in  the  face  of  the  standards 
declared  with  a  loud  voice,  that  he  would  no  longer  serve 
in  the  army,  for  he  had  become  a  Christian;  and  many 
others  followed  his  example.  It  was  not  until  Christianity 
became  corrupted,  that  its  followers  became  soldiers,  and  its 
priests  learned  to  minister  at  the  altar  of  the  God  of  Battles.* 

Thee  to  defend  the  Moloch  priest  prefers 
The  prayer  of  Hate,  and  bellows  to  the  herd 
That  Deity,  accomplice  Deity, 
In  the  fierce  jealousy  of  waked  wrath 
Will  so  forth  with  our  armies  and  our  fleets 
To  scatter  the  red  ruin  on  their  foes  ! 
O  blasphemy  !  to  mingle  fiendish  deeds 
With  blessedness  !t 

A  motion  has  been  brought  forward  in  Congress,  to  dispense 
with  the  services  of  chaplains  in  the  army  and  navy,  mainly 
on  account  of  the  incompatibility  between  the  principles  of 
the  Gospel  and  the  practice  of  War.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that 
what  God  has  placed  so  far  asunder,  may  no  longer  be  joined 
together  by  man.  If  chaplains  are  to  be  employed,  it  should 
be  to  preach  the  religion  they  profess  as  to  the  Heathen,  and 
not  to  offer  incense  to  the  idol  of  war. 

When  will  Christian  ministers  look  for  their  faith,  not  to 
the  ideas,  opinions  and  practices  of  the  people  by  whom  they 
are  surrounded,  but  to  the  written  words  of  the  texts  from 
which  they  preach  ?  It  has  been  said  of  a  monarch  of  Eng 
land  that  he  "  read  Gospel  truth  in  Anna  Boteyn's  eyes." 
Not  less  hyperbolical  and  impossible  is  their  discernment  who 
can  find  in  the  flashing  bayonet,  any  token  of  Peace,  any 
illumination  of  Christian  Love.  That  truly  great  man,  the 
beloved  Channing,  whose  spirit  speaks  to  us  from  no  scep- 
tered  urn,  but  from  that  sweet  grassy  bed  at  Mount  Auburn, 
says :  "  When  I  think  of  duelling  and  war  in  the  Christian 
world,  and  then  of  the  superiority  to  the  world  and  the  un 
bounded  love  and  forbearance  which  characterize  our  reli- 

*  This  subject,  so  interesting  to  the  student  of  history,  and  to  the  conscientious 
inquirer  into  the  true  signification  of  the  Gospel,  has  been  treated  with  fulness 
and  learning  by  Mr.  Clarkson  in  his  Essay  on  the  Doctrines  and  Practice  of  the 
Early  Christians  as  they  relate  to  war.  Mr.  Jay,  in  his  recent  address  before  the 
Peace  Society,  justly  charges  the  Christian  Church  "  with  awful  delinquencies  on 
the  subject  of  war,  and  directs  the  attention  of  her  members  to  the  duty  of 
repentance  and  reformation."  He  sustains  the  charge  by  numerous  illustrations 
of  the  conduct  of  the  clergy,  through  a  succession  of  ages,  but  particularly  in 
our  own  day.  He  finds  the  English  Episcopal  Church  peculiarly  reprehensible; 
and  his  testimony  on  this  point  is  of  special  authority,  from  his  known  eminence 
as  a  lay  member  of  the  sister  Church  in  the  United  States. 

t  Religious  Musings  by  Coleridge,  written  Christmas  Eve  of  1794. 


35 

gion,  I  am  struck  with  the  little  progress  which  Christianity 
has  as  yet  made." 

One  of  the  beautiful  pictures,  adorning  the  dome  of  a 
Church  in  Rome,  by  that  master  of  art,  whose  immortal  colors 
breathe  as  with  the  voice  of  a  Poet,  the  Divine  RafFaelle, 
represents  Mars,  in  the  attitude  of  war,  with  a  drawn  sword 
uplifted  and  ready  to  strike  while  an  unarmed  Angel  from 
behind,  with  gentle  but  irresistible  force,  arrests  and  holds  the 
descending  arm.  Such  is  the  true  image  of  Christian  duty ; 
nor  can  I  readily  perceive  the  difference  in  principle  between 
those  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  who  themselves  gird  on  the 
sword,  as  in  the  olden  time,  and  those  others,  who,  unarmed, 
and  in  customary  suit  of  solemn  black,  lend  the  sanction  of 
their  presence  to  the  martial  array,  or  to  any  form  of  prepa 
ration  for  war.  The  drummer,  who  pleaded  that  he  did  not 
fight,  was  held  more  responsible  for  the  battle  than  the  mere 
soldier;  for  it  was  the  sound  of  his  drum  that  inflamed  the 
flagging  courage  of  the  troops. 

4.  From  the  prejudices  engendered  by  the  Church,  I  pass 
to  the  prejudices  engendered  by  the  army  itself;  prejudices 
having  their  immediate  origin  more  particularly  in  military 
life,  but  unfortunately  diffusing  themselves,  in  widening 
though  less  apparent  circles,  throughout  the  community.  I 
allude  directly  to  what  is  called  the  point  of  honor,  early 
child  of  chivalry,  the  living  representative  in  our  day  of  an 
age  of  barbarism.  It  is  difficult  to  define  what  is  so  evanes 
cent,  so  impalpable,  so  chimerical,  so  unreal ;  and  yet  which 
exercises  such  power  over  many  men,  and  controls  the  rela 
tions  of  states.  As  a  little  water,  which  has  fallen  into  the 
crevice  of  a  rock,  under  the  congelation  of  winter,  swells  till 
it  burst  the  thick  and  stony  fibres ;  so  a  word,  or  a  slender 
act,  dropping  into  the  heart  of  man,  under  the  hardening 
influence  of  this  pernicious  sentiment,  dilates  till  it  rends  in 
pieces  the  sacred  depository  of  human  affections,  while  Hate 
and  the  demon  Strife,  no  longer  restrained,  are  let  loose 
abroad.  The  musing  Hamlet  saw  the  strange  and  unnatural 
power  of  this  sentiment,  when  his  soul  pictured  to  his  con 
templations 


the  army  of  such  mass  and  charge, 

Led  by  a  delicate  and  tender  prince 
Exposing  what  is  mortal  and  unsure 
To  all  that  fortune,  death  and  danger,  dare 
Even  for  an  egg-shell; 


36 

and  when  he  says,  with  a  point  which  has  given  to  this  sen 
timent  its  strongest  and  most  popular  expression, 

Rightly  to  be  great 

Is  not  to  stir  without  great  argument ; 
But  greatly  to  find  quarrel  in  a  straw 
When  honor's  at  the  stake. 

And  when  is  honor  at  stake  ?  This  question  opens  again 
the  views  with  which  I  commenced,  and  with  which  I  hope 
to  close  this  discourse.  Honor  can  only  be  at  stake,  where 
justice  and  happiness  are  at  stake ;  it  can  never  depend  on 
an  egg-shell,  or  a  straw  ;  it  can  never  depend  on  an  impotent 
word  of  anger  or  folly,  not  even  if  that  word  be  followed  by 
a  blow.  In  fine,  true  honor  is  to  be  found  in  the  highest 
moral  and  intellectual  excellence,  in  the  dignity  of  the  hu 
man  soul,  in  its  nearest  approach  to  those  qualities  which  we 
reverence  as  the  attributes  of  God.  Our  community  frowns 
with  indignation  upon  the  profaneness  of  the  duel,  which  has 
its  rise  in  this  irrational  point  of  honor.  But  are  they  aware 
that  they  themselves  indulge  the  sentiment,  on  a  gigantic 
scale,  when  they  recognize  what  is  called  the  honor  of  the 
country,  as  a  proper  ground  for  war  ?  We  have  already  seen 
that  justice  is  in  no  respect  promoted  by  war  ?  Is  true  honor 
promoted  where  justice  is  not? 

But  the  very  word  honor,  as  used  by  the  world,  does  not 
express  any  elevated  sentiment.  How  infinitely  below  the 
sentiment  of  duty !  It  is  a  word  of  easy  virtue,  that  has 
been  prostituted  to  the  most  opposite  characters  and  tranac- 
tions.  From  the  field  of  Pavia,  where  France  suffered  one 
of  the  greatest  reverses  in  her  annals,  Francis  writes  to  his 
mother;  "all  is  lost  except  honor.77  At  a  later  day,  the 
renowned  cook,  the  grand  Vatel,  in  a  paroxysm  of  grief  and 
mortification  at  the  failure  of  two  dishes  expected  on  the  table, 
exclaimed,  "  I  have  lost  my  honor.7'*  Montesquieu,  whose 

*  Accable  d'embarras,  Vatel  est  averti 

Que  deux  tables  en  vain  reclamaient  leur  roti; 

Jl  prend  pour  en  trouver  une  peine  inutile. 

"  Ah  !"  dit.il,  s'adressant  a  son  ami  Gourville, 

De  larmes,  de  sanglots,  de  douleur  suffoque, 

"  Je  suis  perdu  d'honneur,  deux  rotis  ont  manques  /" 

Berchoux. 

This  scene  is  also  described,  with  the  accustomed  coldness  and  brilliancy  of 
her  fashionable  pen,  by  Madame  de  Sevigne,  (Lettres  L  and  LI,  Tom.  I.  pp.  164, 
168.)  In  the  same  place  she  recounts  the  death  of  this  culinary  martyr.  Dis 
appointed  by  the  failure  of  the  purveyors  to  arrive  with  the  turbots  for  an  enter 
tainment  in  proper  season,  he  withdrew  to  his  chamber,  where  he  placed  his 
sword  against  the  door,  and  stabbed  himself  to  the  heart,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  third  blow,  after  giving  himself  two  not  mortal,  that  he  fell  dead.  ".  The 
fish  now  arrives  from  all  quarters,  they  seek  Vatel  to  distribute  it;  they  go  to 


37 

writings  are  a  constellation  of  epigrams,  places  it  in  direct 
contrast  with  virtue.  He  represents  what  he  calls  the  preju 
dice  of  honor  as  the  animating  principle  of  monarchy,  while 
virtue  is  that  of  a  republic,  saying  that  in  well  governed 
monarchies  almost  every  body  will  be  a  good  citizen,  but  it 
will  be  rare  to  meet  with  a  really  good  man.*  By  an  instinct 
that  points  to  the  truth,  we  do  not  apply  this  term  to  the 
high  columnar  virtues  which  sustain  and  decorate  life,  to  pa 
rental  affection,  to  justice,  to  the  attributes  of  God.  We  do 
not  speak  of  an  honorable  father,  an  honorable  mother,  an 
honorable  judge,  an  honorable  angel,  an  honorable  God.  In 
such  sacred  connections  we  feel,  beyond  the  force  of  any 
argument,  the  vulgar  and  debasing  character  of  the  sentiment 
to  which  it  refers. 

The  degrading  rule  of  honor  is  founded  in  the  supposed 
necessity  of  resenting  by  force,  a  supposed  injury,  whether 
by  word  or  act.t  But  suppose  such  an  injury  is  received, 
sullying,  as  is  falsely  imagined,  the  character ;  is  it  wiped 
away  by  a  resort  to  force,  by  descending  to  the  brutal  level 
of  its  author  ?  "  Could  I  have  wiped  your  blood  from  my 
conscience  as  easily  as  I  can  this  insult  from  my  face,"  said  a 
Marshal  of  France,  greater  on  this  occasion  than  on  any  field 
of  fame,  "  I  would  have  laid  you  dead  at  my  feet."  It  is 
Plato,  reporting  the  angelic  wisdom  of  Socrates,  who  declares 
in  one  of  those  beautiful  dialogues,  which  shine  with  stellar 
light  across  the  ages,  that  it  is  more  shameful  to  do  a  wrong 

his  room,  they  knock,  they  force  open  the  door;  he  is  found  bathed  in  blood. 
They  hasten  to  tell  the  Prince,  [the  great  Conde]  who  is  in  despair;  the  Duke 
wept;  it  was  on  Vatel  that  his  journey  from  Burgundy  hinged.  The  Prince 
related  what  had  passed  to  the  King,  with  marks  of  the  deepest  sorrow.  It 
was  attributed  to  the  high  sense  of  honor  which  he  had  after  his  own  way  (on  dit 
que  c'etoit  a  force  d'avoir  de  1'honneur  a  sa  maniere.)  He  was  highly  com 
mended  ;  his  courage  was  praised  and  blamed  at  the  same  time."  The  Epistle 
Dedicatory  prefixed  to  the  concludiug  volume  of  the  Almanac  des  Gourmands, 
addressing  the  shade  of  Vatel,  says;  "  So  noble  a  death  secures  you,  venerable 
shade,  the  most  glorious  immortality  !  You  have  proved  that  the  fanaticism  of 
honor  can  exist  in  the  kitchen  as  well  as  the  camp,  and  that  the  spit  and  sauce- 
pan  have  also  their  Catos  and  their  Deciuses."  "Enfin,"are  the  words  of  a 
French  Vaudeville,  "Manette,  voila  ce  que  c'etoit  que  Madame  de  Sevigne, 
et  Vatel,  ce  sont  les  gens  la  qui  ont  honore  le  siecle  de  Louis  Quatorze."  See 
London  Quarterly  Rev.  Vol.  54.  p.  122. 

*  Montesquieu,  Esprit  des  Louis,  Liv.  3.  cap.  5,  6,  7. 

t  Don  Pedre.     Souhaitez-vous  quelque  chose  de  moi  ? 

Halt.  Oui,  un  conseil  sur  un  fait  d'honneur.  Je  sais  qu'en  ces  matieres  il  est 
mal-aise  de  trouver  un  cavalier  plus  consomme  que  vous. 

Seigneur,  j'ai  recuun  soufflet.  Vous  savez  ce  qu'est  un  soufflet,  lorsqu'il  se 
donne  a  main  ouverte  sur  le  beau  milieu  de  la  joue.  J'ai  ce  soufflet  fort  sur  le 
coeur  ;  et  je  suis  dans  ^incertitude  si,  pour  me  venger  de  Vaffront,je  dois  me  battre 
avec  mon  homme,  ou  Men  le  faire  assassiner. 

Don  Pedre.  Assassiner  c'est  le  plus  sur  et  le  plus  court  chemin. — Moliere,  Le 
Sicilien,  Sc.  13. 


38 

than  to  receive  a  wrong*  And  this  benign  sentiment  com 
mends  itself,  alike  to  the  Christian,  who  is  told  to  render  good 
for  evil,  and  to  the  universal  heart  of  man.  But  who  that 
confesses  its  truth,  can  vindicate  a  resort  to  force,  for  the  sake 
of  honor  ?  Better  far  to  receive  the  blow  that  a  false  morality 
has  thought  degrading,  than  that  it  should  be  revenged  by 
force.  Better  that  a  nation  should  submit  to  what  is  wrong, 
rather  than  vainly  seek  to  maintain  its  honor  by  the  great 
crime  of  war. 

It  seems  that  in  ancient  Athens,  as  in  unchristianized  Chris 
tian  lands,  there  were  sophists,  who  urged  that  to  suffer  was 
unbecoming  a  man,  and  would  draw  down  upon  him  incal 
culable  evils.  The  following  passage  will  show  the  manner 
in  which  the  moral  cowardice  of  these  persons  of  little  faith 
was  rebuked  by  him,  whom  the  Gods  pronounced  wisest  of 
men :  "  These  things  being  so,  let  us  inquire  what  it  is  you 
reproach  me  with ;  whether  it  is  well  said,  or  not,  that  I, 
forsooth,  am  not  able  to  assist  either  myself,  or  any  of  my 
friends  or  my  relations,  or  to  save  them  from  the  greatest 
dangers;  but  that,  like  the  outlaws,  I  am  at  the  mercy  of  any 
one,  who  may  choose  to  smite  me  on  the  temple — and  this 
was  the  strong  point  in  your  argument — or  to  take  away  my 
property,  or  to  drive  me  out  of  the  city,  or  (to  take  the  ex 
treme  case)  to  kill  me  ;  now,  according  to  your  argument,  to 
be  so  situated  is  the  most  shameful  thing  of  all.  But  my  view 
is — a  view  many  times  expressed  already,  but  there  is  no 
objection  to  its  being  stated  again  : — my  view.,  I  say,  is,  O 
Callicles,  that  to  be  struck  unjustly  on  the  temple  is  not 
most  shameful,  nor  to  have  my  body  mutilated,  nor  my 
purse  cut  ;  but  to  strike  me  and  mine  unjustly,  and  to  mu 
tilate  me  and  to  cut  my  purse  is  more  shameful  and  worse; 
and  stealing  too,  and  enslaving,  and  housebreaking,  and  in 
general,  doing  any  ivrong  whatever  to  me  and  mine  is  more 
shameful  and  worse  for  him  who  does  the  ivrong,  than  for 
me  who  suffer  it.  These  things,  thus  established  in  the  former 
arguments,  as  I  maintain,  are  secured  and  bound,  even  if  the 
expression  be  somewhat  too  rustical,  with  iron  and  adaman 
tine  arguments,  and  unless  you,  or  some  one  more  vigorous 
than  you,  can  break  them,  it  is  impossible  for  any  one,  speak 
ing  otherwise  than  I  now  speak,  to  speak  well :  since,  for  my 
part,  I  always  have  the  same  thing  to  say,  that  I  know  not 

*  This  proposition   is   enforced  by  Socrates  with  admirable   and  unanswerable 
reasoning  and  illustratiun,  throughout  the  whole  of  the  Gorgias. 


39 

how  these  things  are,  but  that  of  all  whom  I  have  ever  dis 
coursed  with  as  now,  not  one  is  able  to  say  otherwise  with 
out  being1  ridiculous."  Such  is  the  wisdom  of  Socrates.* 

But  the  modem  point  of  honor  does  not  find  a  place  in 
warlike  antiquity.  Themistocles  at  Salamis  did  not  send  a 
cartel  to  the  Spartan  commander,  when  threatened  by  a 
blow.  "  Strike,  but  hear,"  was  the  response  of  that  firm 
nature,  which  felt  that  true  honor  was  to  be  gained  only  in 
the  performance  of  duty.  It  was  in  the  depths  of  modern 
barbarism,  in  the  age  of  chivalry,  that  this  sentiment  shot  up 
in  the  wildest  and  most  exuberant  fancies;  not  a  step  was 
taken  without  reference  to  it ;  no  act  was  done  which  had 
not  some  point  tending  to  "  the  bewitching  duel,"  and  every 
stage  in  the  combat,  from  the  ceremonies  of  its  beginning  to 
its  deadly  close,  were  measured  by  this  fantastic  law.t  The 
Chevalier  Bayard,  the  cynosure  of  chivalry,  the  knight  with 
out  fear  and  without  reproach,  in  a  contest  with  the  Spaniard 
Don  Alorizo  de  Soto  Mayor,  by  a  feint  struck  him  such  a 
blow  in  the  throat,  that  despite  the  gorget,  the  weapon  pene 
trated  four  fingers  deep.  The  wounded  Spaniard  grasped 
his  adversary,  and,  struggling  with  him,  they  both  rolled  on 
the  ground,  when  Bayard,  drawing  his  dagger,  and  thrusting 
its  point  in  the  nostrils  of  the  Spaniard,  exclaimed,  "  Senor 
Alonzo,  surrender,  or  you  are  a  dead  man!"  A  speech 
which  appeared  superfluous,  as  Don  Diego  de  Guignones,  his 
second,  exclaimed,  "  Senor  Bayard,  he  is  dead ;  you  have 
conquered."  Bayard,  says  the  chronicler,  would  have  given 
one  hundred  thousand  crowns  to  spare  his  life ;  but,  he  now 
fell  upon  his  knees,  kissed  the  ground  three  times  and  then 
dragged  his  dead  enemy  out  of  the  camp,  saying  to  the  sec 
ond  of  his  fallen  foe,  "  Senor  Don  Diego,  have  I  done 
enough  ?"  To  which  the  other  piteousty  replied,  "  too 
much,  Senor,  for  the  honor  of  Spain !"  when  Bayard  very 
generously  presented  him  with  the  corpse,  although  it  was 
his  right,  by  the  laws  of  honor,  to  do  whatever  he  thought 
proper  with  it ;  an  act  which  is  highly  commended  by  Bran 

*  Gorgias,  Cap.  LXIV.  It  appears  that  Cicero  read  the  Gorgias  diligently  at 
Athens;  but  his  admiration  was  bestowed  chiefly  upon  its  distinguished  rhetorical 
excellence.  (De  Oratore,  I.  11.)  If  his  soul  had  been  penetrated  by  its  sublime 
morality,  he  could  never  have  written  ;  Fortes  igitur  et  magnanimi  sunt  habendi, 
non,  qui  faciunt,  sed  qui  propulsant  injuriam.  De  Offic.  Lib.  I.  cap.  19.  This 
is  an  instance  of  the  fickle  eclectic  philosophy  of  the  great  Roman,  which  renders 
his  writings  so  uncertain  a  rule  of  conduct. 

t  Nobody  can  forget  the  humorous  picture  of  the  progress  of  a  quarrel  to  a 
duel,  through  the  seven  degrees  of  Touchstone  in  vis  You  Like  It.  Act.  5, 
Scene  4. 


40 

tome,  who  thinks  it  difficult  to  say  which  did  him  most 
honor— not  having  ignominiously  dragged  the  body  like  the 
carcass  of  a  dog  by  a  leg  out  of  the  field,  or  having  conde 
scended  to  fight  while  laboring  under  an  ague!* 

If  such  a  transaction  conferred  honor  on  the  brightest  son 
of  chivalry,  we  may  understand  therefrom  something  of  the 
real  character  of  that  age,  the  departure  of  which  has  been 
lamented  with  such  touching  but  inappropriate  eloquence. 
Do  not  condescend  to  draw  a  great  rule  of  conduct  from  such 
a  period.  Let  the  point  of  honor  stay  with  the  daggers,  the 
swords  and  the  weapons  of  combat,  by  which  it  was  guarded ; 
let  it  appear  only  with  its  inseparable  companions,  the  bowie- 
knife,  and  the  pistol ! 

Be  ours  a  standard  of  conduct  derived,  not  from  the  de 
gradation  of  our  nature,  though  it  affects  the  semblance  of 
sensibility  and  refinement,  but  having  its  sources  in  the  loftiest 
attributes  of  man,  in  truth,  in  justice,  in  duty;  and  may  this 
standard,  which  governs  our  relations  to  each  other,  be  recog 
nized  among  the  nations  !  When  shall  we  behold  the  dawn 
ing  of  that  happy  day,  harbinger  of  infinite  happiness  beyond, 
in  which  nations  shall  feel  that  it  is  better  to  receive  a  wrong 
than  to  do  a  wrong.  • 

Apply  this  principle  to  our  relations  with  England  at  this 
moment.  Suppose  that  proud  monarchy,  refusing  all  sub 
mission  to  negotiation  or  arbitration,  should  absorb  the  whole 
Territory  of  Oregon  into  her  own  overgrown  dominions,  and 
add,  at  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  River,  a  new  morning 
drum-beat  to  the  national  airs  with  which  she  has  encircled 
the  earth,  who,  then,  is  in  the  attitude  of  the  truest  honor,  Eng 
land,  who  has  appropriated,  by  an  unjust  act,  what  is  not  her 
own,  or  the  United  States,  the  victim  of  the  injustice  ?t 

5.  There  is  still  another  influence  which  stimulates  war, 
and  interferes  with  the  natural  attractions  of  Peace  ;  I  refer 
to  a  selfish  and  exaggerated  love  of  country,  leading  to  its 
physical  aggrandizement,  and  the  strengthening  of  its  institu 
tions  at  the  expense  of  other  countries.  Our  minds,  nursed 
by  the  literature  of  antiquity,  have  imbibed  the  narrow  senti- 

*  Millingen  on  Duels,  I.  81,  82. 

t  If  this  view  needs  any  confirmation  in  the  minds  of  just  and  reasonable  men, 
having  a  true  regard  for  the  happiness  and  real  greatness  of  their  country,  it  may 
be  found  in  the  clear  and  weighty  reasoning  of  President  Wayland  on  War,  in 
his  Elements  of  Morals,  which  is  in  such  harmony  with  the  great  truths  sustained 
throughout  this  Oration  that  I  have  taken  the  liberty  to  transfer  some  pages  of  it 
to  the  Appendix,  Note  E. 


41 

ment  of  heathen  patriotism.*  Exclusive  love  for  the  land  of 
birth  was  a  part  of  the  religion  of  Greece  and  Rome.  It  is 
an  indication  of  the  lowness  of  their  moral  nature,  that  this 
sentiment  was  so  exclusive,  and  so  material  in  its  character. 
The  Oracle  directed  the  returning  Roman  to  kiss  his  mother, 
and  he  kissed  the  Mother  Earth.  Agamemnon,  on  regaining 
his  home  after  a  perilous  separation  of  more  than  ten  years 
at  the  siege  of  Troy,  before  addressing  his  family,  his  friends, 
his  countrymen,  first  salutes  Argos : 

By  your  leave,  Lords,  first  Argos  I  salute.t 

The  school-boy  cannot  forget  the  cry  of  the  victim  of  Ver- 
res,  which  was  to  stay  the  descending  fasces  of  the  lictor,  "  I 
am  a  Roman  citizen ;"  nor  those  other  words  sounding  in  the 
dark  Past,  "  How  sweet  it  is  to  die  for  one's  country  !"  The 
Christian  cry  did  not  rise,  "  I  am  a  man  ;"  the  Christian 
ejaculation  did  not  swell  the  soul,  "  How  sweet  it  is  to  die 
for  duty  !"  The  beautiful  genius  of  Cicero,  at  times  instinct 
with  truth  almost  divine,  did  not  ascend  to  that  highest 
heaven,  where  is  taught,  that  all  mankind  are  neighbors  and 
kindred,  and  that  the  relations  of  fellow-countryman  are  less 
holy  than  those  of  fellow-man.  To  the  love  of  universal 
man  may  be  applied  those  words  by  which  the  great  Roman 
elevated  his  selfish  patriotism  to  a  virtue,  when  he  said  that 
country  alone  embraced  all  the  charities  of  all. \  Attach  this 
admired  phrase  for  a  moment  to  the  single  idea  of  country, 
and  you  will  see  how  contracted  are  its  charities  compared 

*  The  legislation  of  Rome,  which  has  exercised  such  an  influence  over  mankind, 
was  inspired  by  selfishness.  Self  was  at  the  foundation  of  all  rights.  Property 
was  held  under  rigorous  and  exclusive  laws,  which  knew  nothing  of  the  spirit  of 
accommodation,  or  of  good  neighborhood.  There  were  no  common  partition 
walls;  but  houses  stood  apart  (insula),  to  avoid  all  contact  which  could  be  only 
hostile.  In  domestic  life,  the  head  of  the  family  (pater  familial)  was  a  despot. 
He  held  for  a  long  time,  the  right  of  life  and  death  over  his  wife  and  children  ; 
having  no  obligations  towards  them,  but  only  rights  over  them.  This  great  power 
was  not  given  for  the  benefit  of  the  children  ;  securing  to  them  a  guardian  in  their 
immature  years,  but  selfishly,  unnaturally,  for  the  exclusive  benefit  of  the  father, 
to  whom  belonged  all  the  acquisitions  of  the  son.  We  may  well  suspect  any 
principle  of  duty,  public  or  private,  which  has  its  rise  in  fountains  so  strongly 
impregnated  with  the  iron  of  the  soil.  For  an  interesting  view  of  the  true  charac 
ter  of  the  Roman  Law,  see  Kleimrath,  Travaux  sur  1'Histoire  de  droit  Francais, 
Tom.  1,  39. 

t  Agamemnon  of  JEschylus  ;  translated  by  Symmons,  p.  73.  Cato  in  a  didactic 
work,  says  to  the  farmer  on  his  return  home,  Primum  Larem  salutato. 

\  Sed  quum  omnia  ratione,  animoque  lustraris,  omnium  societatum  nulla  est 
gravior,  nulla  carior,  quam  ea,  quae  cum  republica  est  unicuique  nostrum.  Cari 
sunt  parentes,  cari  liberi,  propinqui,  familiares  ;  sed  omnes  omnium  caritates  patria 
una  complexa  est;  pro  qua  quis  bonus  dubitet  mortem  oppetere,  si  ei  sit  profutu- 
rus  ?  De  Offic.  Lib.  I,  Cap.  17,  $  57.  It  is  curious  to  observe  how  Cicero  puts 
aside  that  expression  of  true  Humanity,  which  fell  from  Terence,  Humani  nihil  a 


42 

with  the  world-wide  circle  of  Christian  love,  whose  neighbor 
is  the  suffering  man,  though  at  the  farthest  pole.  Such  a 
sentiment  would  dry  up  those  fountains  of  benevolence,  which 
now  diffuse  themselves  in  precious  waters  in  distant  unenlight 
ened  lands,  bearing  the  blessings  of  truth  to  the  icy  mountains 
of  Greenland,  and  the  coral  islands  of  the  Pacific  sea. 

It  has  been  a  part  of  the  policy  of  rulers,  to  encourage 
this  exclusive  patriotism;  and  the  people  of  modern  times 
have  each  inherited  the  feeling  of  Antiquity.  I  do  not  know 
that  any  one  nation  is  in  a  condition  to  reproach  the  other 
with  this  patriotic  selfishness.  All  are  selfish.  Among  us, 
the  sentiment  has  become  active,  while  it  has  derived  new 
force  from  the  point  with  which  it  has  been  expressed.  An 
officer  of  our  Navy,  one  of  the  so  called  heroes  nurtured  by 
war,  whose  name  has  been  praised  in  churches,  has  gone 
beyond  all  Greek,  all  Roman  example.  "  Our  country,  be 
she  right  or  wrong"  was  his  exclamation  ;  a  sentiment 
dethroning  God  and  enthroning  the  devil,  whose  flagitious 
character  should  be  rebuked  by  every  honest  heart,*  "  Our 
country,  our  whole  country,  and  nothing  but  our  country" 
are  other  words,  which  have  often  been  painted  on  banners, 
and  echoed  by  the  voices  of  innumerable  multitudes.  Cold 
and  dreary,  narrow  and  selfish,  would  be  this  life,  if  nothing 
but  our  country  occupied  our  souls :  if  the  thoughts  that 
wander  through  eternity,  if  the  infinite  affections  of  our  na 
ture,  were  restrained  to  that  spot  of  earth  where  we  have  been 
placed  by  the  accident  of  birth. 

I  do  not  inculcate  an  indifference  to  country.  We  incline, 
by  a  natural  sentiment,  to  the  spot  where  we  were  born,  to 
the  fields  which  witnessed  the  sports  of  childhood,  to  the  seat 

me  alienum  puto.  He  says,  Est  enim  difficilis  cura  rerum  alienarum.  De  Offic. 
Lib.  1,  Cap.  9.  Since  the  delivery  of  this  Oration,  I  have  met  the  following 
opportune  testimony  to  the  truth  of  the  text,  in  the  journals  and  opinions  of  the 
late  Blanco  White,  one  of  the  most  ingenuous  and  conscientious  characters  of 
the  age.  "  Would  you  have  a  clear,  practical  conception  of  Virtue  ?  Study  the 
early,  the  mythic  history  of  Rome,  and  try  to  sympathize  with  her  heroes, — those 
men  who  lived  only  for  the  State  ;  who  appear  to  have  lost  their  own  personality, 
and  to  have  identified  themselves  with  the  republic.  Having  done  this,  reflect 
upon  the  incompleteness  (and  we  may  well  say,  absurdity)  of  limiting  our  moral 
relations  to  any  portion  of  the  whole  mass  of  mankind,  and  embrace  the  immova 
ble  conviction,  on  this  point,  that  every  individual  man  belongs  to  the  whole  race 
or,  more  properly  speaking,  to  the  Universe,  more  truly  than  Roman  patriots 
conceived  themselves  to  belong  to  the  State.  And  now  you  will  have  obtained 
le  true  idea  of  national  real  virtue,  if  you  conceive  your  duties  to  God  and  his 
creation  to  be  exactly  analogous  to  those  of  those  ancient  heroes."  Blanco 
White's  Journals  and  Correspondence,  Vol.  II.  pp.  299,  300,  301. 

Unlike  this  is  what  has  been  said  of  the  virtuous  Andrew  Fletcher,  in  the  days 
:  the  English  Revolution  of  1688,  who  "  would  lose  his  life  to  serve  his'country, 
at  would  not  do  a  base  thing  to  save  it."  Mackintosh,  Eth.  Philosophy. 


43 

of  youthful  studies,  and  to  the  institutions  under  which  we 
have  been  trained.  The  finger  of  God  writes  in  indelible 
colors  all  these  things  upon  the  heart  of  man,  so  that  in  the 
dread  extremities  of  death,  he  reverts  in  fondness  to  early 
associations,  and  longs  for  a  draught  of  cold  water  from  the 
bucket  in  his  father's  well.  This  sentiment  is  independent  of 
reflection,  for  it  begins  before  reflection,  grows  with  our 
growth,  and  strengthens  with  our  strength.  It  is  blind  in  its 
nature  ;  and  it  is  the  duty  of  each  of  us  to  take  care  that  it 
does  not  absorb  the  whole  character.*  In  the  moral  night 
which  has  enveloped  the  world,  each  nation,  thus  far,  has 
lived  ignorant  and  careless,  to  much  extent,  of  the  interests 
of  others,  which  it  imperfectly  saw  ;  but  this  thick  darkness 
has  now  been  scattered,  and  we  begin  to  discern,  all  gilded 
by  the  beams  of  morning,  the  distant  mountain-peaks  of  other 
lands.  We  find  that  God  has  not  placed  us  on  this  earth 
alone  ;  that  there  are  other  nations,  equally  with  us,  children 
of  his  protecting  care. 

The  curious  spirit  goes  further,  and  while  it  recognizes  an 
inborn  sentiment  of  attachment  to  the  place  of  birth,  inquires 
into  the  nature  of  the  allegiance  which  is  due  to  the  State. 
The  old  idea,  still  too  much  received,  is,  that  man  is  made 
for  the  State,  and  not  the  State  for  man.  Far  otherwise  is 
the  truth.  The  State  is  an  artificial  body,  intended  for  the 
security  of  the  people.  How  constantly  do  we  find,  in  human 
history,  that  the  people  have  been  sacrificed  for  the  State  ; 
to  build  the  Roman  name,  to  secure  to  England  the  trident 
of  the  sea.  This  is  to  sacrifice  the  greater  for  the  less ;  for 
the  fleeting  possessions  of  earth  to  barter  the  immortal  soul. 
Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  State  is  not  worth  preserving 
at  the  cost  of  the  lives  and  happiness  of  the  people. 

It  is  not  that  I  love  country  less,  but  Humanity  more,  that 
now  on  this  national  Anniversary,  I  plead  the  cause  of  a 
higher  and  truer  patriotism.  Remember  that  you  are  men, 
by  a  more  sacred  bond  than  you  are  citizens  ;  that  you  are 
children  of  a  common  Father  more  than  you  are  Ameri 
cans. 


*  "  When  any  natural  propensity  is  consecrated  into  a  virtue,  the  greatest  evils 
ensue.  Patriotism  is  an  instance  of  this.  We  are  naturally  led  to  give  undue 
importance  to  ourselves;  this,  when  the  individual  is  clearly  the  object  of  his 
own  feeling,  is  called  selfishness.  But  when  under  the  name  of  patriotism,  each 
individual  indulges  himself  in  vanity,  in  pride,  in  ambition,  in  cruelty,  and  yet 
does  it  as  an  Englishman,  a  Frenchman,  as  a  Spaniard  [he  might  have  added  as 
an  American] ,  all  these  vices  are  reckoned  virtues." — Life  of  Blanco  White, 
Vol.  II.  p.  6. 


44 

Viewing,  then,  the  different  people  on  the  globe,  as  all 
deriving  their  blood  from  a  common  source,  and  separated 
only  by  the  accident  of  mountains,  rivers  and.  seas,  into  those 
distinctions  around  which  cluster  the  associations  of  country, 
we  must  regard  all  the  children  of  the  earth  as  members  of 
the  great  human  family.  Discord  in  this  family  is  treason  to 
God;  while  all  war  is  nothing  else  than  civil  wax.  It  will 
be  in  vain  that  we  restrain  this  odious  term,  importing  so 
much  of  horror,  to  the  petty  dissensions  of  a  single  State.  It 
belongs  as  justly  to  the  feuds  between  nations.  The  soul 
stands  aghast,  as  we  contemplate  fields  drenched  in  fraternal 
gore,  where  the  happiness  of  homes  has  been  shivered  by  the 
unfriendly  arms  of  neighbors,  and  where  kinsmen  have  sunk 
beneath  the  cold  steel  that  was  nerved  by  a  kinsman's  hand. 
This  is  civil  war,  which  stands  for  ever  accursed  in  the  calen 
dar  of  timo.  But  the  Muse  of  History,  in  the  faithful  record 
of  the  future  transactions  of  nations,  inspired  by  a  new  and 
loftier  justice,  and  touched  to  finer  sensibilities,  shall  extend 
to  the  general  sorrows  of  Universal  Man  the  sympathy  which 
has  been  profusely  shed  for  the  selfish  sorrow  of  country,  and 
shall  pronounce  all  war  to  be  civil  tuar,  and  the  partakers 
in  it  as  traitors  to  God  and  enemies  to  man. 

6.  I  might  here  pause,  feeling  that  those  of  my  hearers 
who  have  kindly  accompanied  me  to  this  stage,  would  be 
ready  to  join  in  the  condemnation  of  war,  and  hail  peace,  as 
the  only  condition  becoming  the  dignity  of  human  nature, 
and  in  which  true  greatness  can  be  achieved.  But  there  is 
still  one  more  consideration,  which  yields  to  none  of  the 
others  in  importance ;  perhaps  it  is  more  important  than  all. 
It  is  at  once  cause  and  effect ;  the  cause  of  much  of  the  feel 
ing  in  favor  of  war,  and  the  effect  of  this  feeling.  I  refer  to 
the  costly  preparations  for  war,  in  time  of  peace. 

I  do  not  propose  to  dwell  upon  the  immense  cost  of  war 
itself.  That  will  be  present  to  the  minds  of  all  in  the  moun 
tainous  accumulations  of  debt,  piled  like  Ossa  upon  Pelion, 
with  which  Europe  is  pressed  to  the  earth.  According  to 
the  most  recent  tables  to  which  I  have  had  access,  the  public 
debt  of  the  different  European  States,  so  far  as  it  is  known, 
amounts  to  the  terrific  sum  of  $6,387,000,000,  all  of  this 
the  growth  of  War !  It  is  said  that  there  are  throughout 
these  states,  17,900,000  paupers,  or  persons  subsisting  at 
the  expense  of  the  country,  without  contributing  to  its  re 
sources.  If  these  millions  of  the  public  debt,  forming  only 


45 

a  part  of  what  has  been  wasted  in  war,  could  be  apportioned 
among  these  poor,  it  would  give  to  each  of  them  $375,  a 
sum  which  would  place  all  above  want,  and  which  is  about 
equal  to  the  average  value  of  the  property  of  each  inhabi 
tant  of  Massachusetts. 

The  public  debt  of  Great  Britain   amounted  in  1839  to 
$4,265,000,000,  all  of  this  the  growth  of  War  since  1688! 
This  amount  is  about  equal  to  the  sum  total,  according  to  the 
calculations  of  Humboldt,  of  all  the  treasures  which  have 
been  reaped  from  the  harvest  of  gold  and  silver  in  the  mines 
of  Spanish  America,  including  Mexico  and  Peru,  since  the 
first  discovery  of  our  hemisphere  by  Christopher  Columbus  ! 
It  is  much  larger  than  the  amount  of  all  the  precious  metals, 
which  at  this  moment  form  the  circulating  medium  of  the 
world  !     It  is  said  rashly  by  some  persons,  who  have  given 
little  attention  to  this  subject,  that  all  this  expenditure  was 
good  for  the  people ;  but  these  persons  do  not  bear  in  mind 
that  it  was  not  bestowed  on  any  useful  object.  It  was  wasted. 
The  aggregate  capital  of  all  the  joint  stock  companies  in 
England,  of  which  there  was  any  known  record  in  1842,  em 
bracing  canals,  docks,  bridges,  insurance  companies,  banks, 
gas-lights,  water,  mines,  railways,  and  other  miscellaneous 
objects,  was  about   $835,000,000 ;  a  sum  which  has   been 
devoted  to  the  welfare  of  the  people,  but  how  infinitely  less 
in  amount  than  the  War  Debt !     For  the  six  years  ending  in 
1836,  the  average  payment  for  the  interest  on  this  debt  was 
about   $140,000,000  annually.      If    we   add  to   this   sum, 
$60,000,000  during  this  same  period  paid  annually  to  the 
army,  navy  and  ordnance,  we  shall  have  $200,000,000  as  the 
annual  tax  of  the  English  people,  to  pay  for  former  wars  and 
to  prepare  for  new.     During  this  same  period  there  was  an 
annual  appropriation   of  only  $20,000,000  for  all  the  civil 
purposes  of  the  government.     It  thus  appears  that  War  ab 
sorbed  ninety  cents  of  every  dollar  that  was  pressed  by  heavy 
taxation  from  the  English  people,  who  almost  seem  to  sweat 
blood  !     WThat  fabulous  monster,  or  chimera  dire,  ever  raged 
with  a  maw  so  ravenous !     The  remaining  ten  cents  sufficed 
to  maintain  the  splendor  of  the  throne,  the  administration  of 
justice,  and  the  diplomatic  relations  with  foreign  powers,  in 
short  all  the  proper  objects  of  a  Christian  State.* 

*  I  have  here  relied  upon  M'Culloch's  Commercial  Dictionary ;  The  Edinburgh 
Geography,  founded  on  the  works  of  Malte  Brun  and  Balbi;  and  the  calculations 
of  Mr.  Jay  in  Peace  and  War,  p.  16,  and  in  his  Address  before  the  Peace  Society, 
pp.  28,  29. 


46 

Let  us  now  look  exclusively  at  the  preparations  for  war 
in  time  of  peace.  It  is  one  of  the  miseries  of  war  that,  even 
in  peace,  its  evils  continue  to  be  felt  by  the  world,  beyond 
any  other  evils  by  which  poor  suffering  humanity  is  oppressed. 
If  Bellona  withdraws  from  the  field,  we  only  lose  the  sight  of 
her  flaming  torches ;  the  bay  of  her  dogs  is  heard  on  the 
mountains,  and  civilized  man  thinks  to  find  protection  from 
their  sudden  fury,  only  by  enclosing  himself  in  the  defences 
of  war.  At  this  moment  the  Christian  nations,  worshipping 
a  symbol  of  common  brotherhood,  live  as  in  entrenched 
camps,  in  which  they  keep  armed  watch,  to  prevent  surprise 
from  each  other. 

It  is  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  arrive  at  any  exact  esti 
mate  of  the  cost  of  these  preparations,  ranging  under  four 
different  heads  ;  the  standing  army ;  the  navy  ;  the  fortifica 
tions,  and  ordnance ;  and  the  militia  or  irregular  troops. 

The  number  of  soldiers  now  keeping  the  peace  of  European 
Christendom,  as  a  standing  army,  without  counting  the 
Navy,  is  upwards  of  two  millions.  Some  estimates  place  it 
as  high  as  three  millions.*  The  army  of  Great  Britain  ex 
ceeds  300,000  men;  that  of  France  350,000;  that  of  Russia 
730,000,  and  is  reckoned  by  some  as  high  as  1,000,000 ;  that 
of  Austria  about  275,000;  that  of  Prussia  150,000.  Taking 
the  smaller  number,  suppose  these  two  millions  to  require  for 
their  annual  support  an  average  sum  of  only  $150  each,  the 
result  would  be  $300,000,000,  for  their  sustenance  alone  ;  and 
reckoning  one  officer  to  ten  soldiers,  and  allowing  to  each  of 
the  latter  an  English  shilling  a  day,  or  $87  a  year,  for  wages, 
and  to  the  former  an  average  salary  of  $500  a  year,  we 
should  have  for  the  pay  of  the  whole  no  less  than  $256,000,- 
000,  or  an  appalling  sum  total  for  both  sustenance  and  pay  of 
$556,000,000.  If  the  same  calculation  be  made,  supposing 
the  forces  to  amount  to  three  millions,  the  sum  total  will  be 
$835,000,000  !  But  to  this  enormous  sum  another  still  more 
enormous  must  be  added  on  account  of  the  loss  sustained  by 
the  withdrawal  of  two  millions  of  hardy,  healthy  men,  in  the 


*  I  have  here  relied  upon  the  Edinburgh  Geography  founded  on  the  works  of 
Make  Brun  and  Balbi,  which  makes  the  standing  army  of  the  European  Powers 
upwards  of  two  millions.  The  tract  on  the  Waste  of  Property  by  War,  which 
illustrates  this  subject  by  many  important  statistics,  makes  it  upward  of  three 
millions.  The  annual  expense  of  supporting  a  soldier  differs  in  different  countries. 
In  Austria  it  is  about  $130;  in  France  $146;  in  Prussia  nearly  $200,  and  in 
England  still  greater. 


47 

bloom  of  life,  from  useful,  productive  labor.  It  has  been 
supposed  that  it  costs  an  average  of  $500  to  rear  a  soldier ; 
and  that  the  value  of  his  labor  if  devoted  to  useful  objects 
would  be  $150  a  year.  The  Christian  Powers,  therefore,  in 
setting  apart  two  millions  of  men,  as  soldiers,  sustain  a  loss  of 
$1,000,000,000  on  account  of  their  training ;  and  $300,000,000 
annually,  on  account  of  their  labor.  So  much  for  the  cost 
of  the  standing  army  of  European  Christendom  in  time  of 
Peace. 

Glance  now  at  the  Navy  of  European  Christendom.  The 
Royal  Navy  of  Great  Britain  consists  at  present  of  556  ships 
of  all  classes ;  but  deducting  such  as  are  used  as  convict  ships, 
floating  chapels,  coal  depots,  the  efficient  navy  consists  of  88 
sail  of  the  line;  109  frigates;  190  small  frigates,  corvettes, 
brigs  and  cutters,  including  packets;  65  steamers  of  various 
sizes ;  3  troop-ships  and  yachts  ;  in  all  455  ships.  Of  these 
there  were  in  commission  in  July,  1839,  190  ships,  carrying 
in  all  4,202  guns.  The  number  of  hands  employed  in  1839, 
was  34,465.  The  Navy  of  France,  though  not  comparable  in 
size  with  that  of  England,  is  of  vast  force.  By  royal  ordi 
nance  of  1st  January,  1837,  it  was  fixed  in  time  of  peace  at 
40  ships  of  the  line,  50  frigates,  40  steamers,  and  190  smaller 
vessels;  and  the  amount  of  crews  in  1839,  was  20,317  men. 
The  Russian  Navy  consists  of  two  large  fleets  in  the  Gulf  of 
Finland  and  the  Black  Sea ;  but  the  exact  amount  of  their 
force  and  their  available  resources  has  been  a  subject  of  dis 
pute  amongst  naval  men  and  politicians.  Some  idea  may  be 
formed  of  the  size  of  the  navy  from  the  number  of  hands 
employed.  The  crews  of  the  Baltic  fleet  amounted  in  1837, 
to  not  less  than  30,800  men ;  and  those  of  the  fleet  in  the 
Black  Sea  to  19,800,  or  altogether  50,600.  The  Austrian 
Navy  consisted  in  1837,  of  8  ships  of  the  line,  8  frigates,  4 
sloops,  6  brigs,  7  schooners  or  galleys,  and  a  number  of  smaller 
vessels  ;  the  number  of  men  in  its  service  in  1839,  was  4,547. 
The  Navy  of  Denmark  consisted  at  the  close  of  1837  of  7 
ships  of  the  line,  7  frigates,  5  sloops,  6  brigs,  3  schooners,  5 
cutters,  58  gun-boats,  6  gun-rafts,  and  3  bomb  vessels,  re 
quiring  about  6,500  men  to  man  them.  The  Navy  of  Sweden 
and  Norway  consisted  recently  of  238  gun-boats,  11  ships 
of  the  line,  8  frigates,  4  corvettes,  6  brigs,  with  several  smaller 
vessels.  The  Navy  of  Greece  consists  of  32  ships  of  wai^ 
carrying  190  guns,  and  2,400  men.  The  Navy  of  Holland 
in  1839  consisted  of  8  ships  of  the  line,  21  frigates,  15  cor- 


48 

vettes,  21  brigs,  and  95  gun-boats.*  It  is  impossible  to  give 
any  accurate  idea  of  the  immense  cost  of  all  these  mighty 
preparations  for  war.  It  is  melancholy  to  contemplate 
such  gigantic  means,  applied  by  European  Christendom  to  the 
erection  of  these  superfluous  wooden  walls  in  time  of  Peace  ! 

In  the  fortifications  and  arsenals  of  Europe,  crowning 
every  height,  commanding  every  valley,  and  frowning  over 
every  plain  and  every  sea,  wealth  has  been  sunk  which  is 
beyond  calculation.  Who  can  tell  the  immense  sums  that 
have  been  expended  in  hollowing  out,  for  the  purposes  of 
defence,  the  living  rock  of  Gibraltar  ?  Who  can  calculate 
the  cost  of  all  the  preparations  at  Woolwich,  its  27,000 
cannons,  and  its  hundreds  of  thousands  of  small  arms? 
France  alone  contains  upwards  of  one  hundred  and  twenty 
fortified  places.  And  it  is  supposed  that  the  yet  unfinished 
fortifications  of  Paris  have  cost  upwards  of  fifty  millions  of 
dollars  ! 

The  cost  of  the  militia  or  irregular  troops,  the  Yeomanry 
of  England,  the  National  Guards  of  Paris,  and  the  Landwehr 
and  Landsturm  of  Prussia,  must  add  other  incalculable  sums 
to  these  enormous  amounts. 

Turn  now  to  the  United  States,  separated  by  a  broad 
ocean  from  immediate  contact  with  the  great  powers  of 
Christendom,  bound  by  treaties  of  amity  and  commerce  with 
all  the  nations  of  the  earth;  connected  with  all  by  the  strong 
ties  of  mutual  interest ;  and  professing  a  devotion  to  the 
principles  of  Peace.  Are  the  Treaties  of  Amity  mere  words  ? 
Are  the  relations  of  commerce  and  mutual  interest  mere 
things  of  a  day  ?  Are  the  professions  of  Peace  vain  ?  Else 
why  not  repose  in  quiet  unvexed  by  preparations  for  war  ? 

Enormous  as  are  the  expenses  of  this  character  in  Europe, 
those  in  our  country  are  still  greater  in  proportion  to  the 
other  expenditures  of  the  Federal  Government. 

It  appears  that  the  average  expenditures  of  the  Federal 
Government  for  the  six  years  ending  with  1840,  exclusive  of 
payments  on  account  of  debt,  were  $26,474,892  ;  of  this  sum, 
the  average  appropriation  each  year  for  military  and  naval 
purposes  amounted  to  $21,328,903,  being  eighty  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  amount  ?  Yes ;  of  all  the  income  which  was 
received  by  the  Federal  Government,  eighty  cents  in  every 
dollar  was  applied  in  this  useless  way.  The  remaining 

*  I  have  drawn  these  details  from  the  Edinburgh  Geography  ;  and  from  McCul- 
loch's  Dictionary  of  Geography. 


49 

twenty  cents  sufficed  to  maintain  the  Government,  the  ad 
ministration  of  justice,  our  relations  with  foreign  nations,  the 
light-houses  which  shed  their  cheerful  signals  over  the  rough 
waves  which  beat  upon  our  long  and  indented  coast,  from  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  Let  us  ob 
serve  the  relative  expenditures  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
scale  of  the  nations,  for  military  preparations,  in  time  of 
Peace,  exclusive  of  payments  on  account  of  the  debts.  These 
expenditures  are  in  proportion  to  the  whole  expenditure  of 
Government ; 

In  Austria,  as  33  per  cent.. 

In  France,  as  38  per  cent., 

In  Prussia,  as  44  per  cent., 

In  Great  Britain,  as  74  per  cent., 

In  the  UNITED  STATES,  as  80  per  cent  !* 

To  these  superfluous  expenditures  of  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  are  to  be  added  the  still  larger  and  equally  superfluous 
expenses  of  the  militia  throughout  the  country,  which  have 
been  placed  at  $50,000,000  a  year.t 

By  a  tablej  of  the  expenditures  of  the  United  States,  ex 
clusive  of  payments  on  account  of  the  Public  Debt,  it  ap 
pears,  that,  in  the  fifty-three  years  from  the  formation  of  our 
present  Government,  in  1789  down  to  1843,  there  have  been 
$246,620,055  spent  for  civil  purposes,  comprehending  the  ex 
penses  of  the  executive,  the  legislative,  the  judiciary,  the  post- 
office,  light-houses,  and  intercourse  with  foreign  governments. 
During  this  same  period  there  have  been  $368,526,594  de 
voted  to  the  military  establishment,  and  $170,437,684  to 
the  naval  establishment ;  the  two,  forming  an  aggregate  of 
$538,964,278.  Deducting  from  this  sum  the  appropriations 
during  three  years  of  war,  and  we  shall  find  that  more 
than  four  hundred  millions  were  absorbed  by  vain  prepa 
rations  in  time  of  peace  for  war.  Add  to  this  amount  a  mod 
erate  sum  for  the  expenses  of  the  militia  during  the  same 
period,  which  a  candid  and  able  writer  places  at  present  at 
$50,000,000  a  year;  for  the  past  years  we  may  take  an 
average  of  $25,000,000,  and  we  shall  have  the  enormous 
sum  of  $1,335,000,000  to  be  added  to  the  $400,000,000; 
the  whole  amounting  to  seventeen  hundred  and,  thirty-jive 
millions  of  dollars,  a  sum  beyond  the  conception  of  human 

*  I  have  verified  these  results  by  the  tables  of  expenditures  of  these  different 
nations,  but  I  do  little  more  than  follow  Mr.  Jay,  who  has  illustrated  this  impor 
tant  point  with  his  accustomed  accuracy.  Address,  p.  30. 

t  Jay's  Peace  and  War,  p.  13.  t  American  Almanac  for  1845,  page  143. 

4 


50 

faculties,  sunk  under  the  sanction  of  the  Government  of  the 
United  States  in  mere  peaceful  preparations  for  war;  more 
than  seven  times  as  much  as  was  dedicated  by  the  Govern 
ment,  during  the  same  period,  to  all  other  purposes  whatsoever. 

From  this  serried  array  of  figures  the  mind  instinctively 
retreats.  If  we  examine  them  from  a  nearer  point  of  view, 
and,  selecting  some  particular  part,  compare  it  with  the  figures 
representing  other  interests  in  the  community,  they  will  pre 
sent  a  front  still  more  dread. 

Within  a  short  distance  of  this  city  stands  an  institution  of 
learning,  which  was  one  of  the  earliest  cares  of  the  early 
forefathers  of  the  country,  the  conscientious  Puritans.  Fa 
vored  child  of  an  age  of  trial  and  struggle,  carefully  nursed 
through  a  period  of  hardship  and  anxiety,  endowed  at  that 
time  by  the  oblations  of  men  like  Harvard,  sustained  from 
its  first  foundation  by  the  paternal  arm  of  the  Commonwealth, 
by  a  constant  succession  of  munificent  bequests,  and  by  the 
prayers  of  all  good  men,  the  University  of  Cambridge  now 
invites  our  homage  as  the  most  ancient,  the  most  interesting 
and  the  most  important  seat  of  learning  in  the  land ;  possess 
ing  the  oldest  and  most  valuable  library,  one  of  the  largest 
museums  of  mineralogy  and  natural  history, — a  School  of 
Law,  which  annually  receives  into  its  bosom  more  than  one 
hundred  and  fifty  sons  from  all  parts  of  the  Union,  where  they 
listen  to  instruction  from  professors  whose  names  have  be 
come  among  the  most  valuable  possessions  of  the  land* — a 
School  of  Divinity,  the  nurse  of  true  learning  and  piety — one 
of  the  largest  and  most  flourishing  Schools  of  Medicine  in  the 
country — besides  these,  a  general  body  of  teachers,  twenty- 
seven  in  number,  many  of  whose  names  help  to  keep  the 
name  of  the  country  respectable  in  every  part  of  the  globe, 
where  science,  learning  and  taste  are  cherished — the  whole, 
presided  over  at  this  moment  by  a  gentleman,  early  distin 
guished  in  public  life  by  his  unconquerable  energies  and  his 
masculine  eloquence,  at  a  later  period,  by  the  unsurpassed 
ability  with  which  he  administered  the  affairs  of  our  city, 
now,  in  a  green  old  age,  full  of  years  and  honors,  preparing 
to  lay  down  his  present  high  trust.t  Such  is  Harvard  Uni 
versity;  and  as  one  of  the  humblest  of  her  children,  happy  in 

*  Mr.  Justice  Story,  whose  various  juridical  writings  have  caused  him  to  be 
hailed,  in  foreign  lands,  among  the  first  jurists  of  the  age;  and  Professor  Green- 
leaf,  whose  classic  work  on  the  Law  of  Evidence  has  already  become  an  autho 
rity  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic. 

t  Hon.  Joaiah  Quincy. 


51 

the  recollection  of  a  youth  nurtured  in  her  classic  retreats,  I 
cannot  allude  to  her  without  an  expression  of  filial  affection 
and  respect. 

It  appears  from  the  last  Report  of  the  Treasurer,*  that  the 
whole  available  property  of  the  University,  the  various  accu 
mulations  of  more  than  two  centuries  of  generosity,  amounts 
to  $703,175. 

There  now  swings  idly  at  her  moorings,  in  this  harbor,  a 
ship  of  the  line,  the  Ohio,  carrying  ninety  guns,  finished  as 
late  as  1836  for  $547,888;  repaired  only  two  years  after 
wards  in  1838,  for  $223,012;  with  an  armament  which  has 
cost  $53,945  ;  making  an  amount  of  $834,845,t  as  the  actual 
cost  at  this  moment  of  tjjat  single  ship ;  more  than  $100,000 
beyond  all  the  available  accumulations  of  the  richest  and 
most  ancient  seat  of  learning  in  the  land !  Choose  ye,  my 
fellow  citizens  of  a  Christian  State,  between  the  two  caskets — 
that  wherein  is  the  loveliness  of  knowledge  and  truth,  or  that 
which  contains  the  carrion  death. 

Let  us  pursue  the  comparison  still  further.  The  account 
of  the  expenditures  of  the  University  during  the  last  year,  for 
the  general  purposes  of  the  College,  the  instruction  of  the 
Undergraduates,  and  for  the  Schools  of  Law  and  Divinity, 
amounts  to  $45,949.  The  cost  of  the  Ohio  for  one  year  in 
service,  in  salaries,  wages,  and  provisions,  is  $220,000 ;  being 
$175,000  more  than  the  annual  expenditures  of  the  Uni 
versity;  more  than  four  times  as  much.  In  other  words,  for 
the  annual  sum  which  is  lavished  on  one  ship  of  the  line,^wr 
Institutions  like  Harvard  University,  might  be  sustained 
throughout  the  country ! 

Still  further  let  us  pursue  the  comparison.  The  pay  of  the 
Captain  of  a  ship  like  the  Ohio,  is  $4,500,  when  in  service  ; 
$3,500  when  on  leave  of  absence,  or  off  duty.  The  salary  of 
the  President  of  the  Harvard  University  is  $2,205 ;  without 
leave  of  absence,  and  never  being  off  duty! 

If  the  large  endowments  of  Harvard  University  are  dwarfed 
by  a  comparison  with  the  expense  of  a  single  ship  of  the  line, 
how  much  more  must  it  be  so  with  those  of  other  institutions 
of  learning  and  beneficence,  less  favored  by  the  bounty  of 
many  generations.  The  average  cost  of  a  sloop  of  war  is 
$315,000;  more,  probably,  than  all  the  endowments  of  those 

*  Hon.  S.  A.  Eliot's  Report  in  1844. 

t  Document,  No.  132,  House  of  Representatives,  3d  session,  27th  Congress. 
Reference  is  here  made  to  the  Ohio,  because  ehe  happens  to  be  in  our  waters. 
The  expense  of  the  Delaware  in  1842  had  been  $1,051,000. 


twin  stars  of  learning  in  the  Western  part  of  Massachusetts, 
the  Colleges  at  Williamstown  and  Amherst,  and  of  that  single 
star  in  the  East,  the  guide  to  many  ingenuous  youth,  the 
Seminary  at  Andover.  The  yearly  cost  of  a  sloop  of  war  in 
service  is  above  $50,000 ;  more  than  the  annual  expenditures 
of  these  three  Institutions  combined. 

I  might  press  the  comparison  with  other  Institutions  of  be 
neficence  ;  with  the  annual  expenditures  for  the  Blind — that 
noble  and  successful  charity,  which  has  shed  true  lustre  upon 
our  Commonwealth — amounting  to  $12,000;  and  the  annual 
expenditures  for  the  Insane  of  the  Commonwealth,  another 
charity  dear  to  humanity,  amounting  to  $27,844. 

Take  all  the  Institutions  of  learning  and  beneficence,  the 
precious  jewels  of  the  Commonwealth,  the  schools,  colleges, 
hospitals  and  asylums,  and  the  sums  by  which  they  have  been 
purchased  and  preserved  are  trivial  and  beggarly,  compared 
with  the  treasures  squandered  within  the  borders  of  Massa 
chusetts  in  vain  preparations  for  war.  There  is  the  Navy 
Yard  at  Charlestown,  with  its  stores  on  hand,  all  costing 
$4,741,000;  the  fortifications  in  the  harbors  of  Massachu 
setts,  in  which  have  been  sunk  already  incalculable  sums, 
and  in  which  it  is  now  proposed  to  sink  $3,853,000  more  ;"* 
and  besides,  the  Arsenal  at  Springfield,  containing  in  1842, 
175,118  muskets,  valued  at  $2,999,998,t  and  which  is  fed  by 
an  annual  appropriation  of  about  8200,000;  but  whose  highest 
value  will  ever  be,  in  the  judgment  of  all  lovers  of  truth,  that 
it  inspired  a  poem,  which,  in  its  influence  shall  be  mightier 
than  a  battle,  and  shall  endure  when  arsenals  and  fortifica 
tions  have  crumbled  to  the  earth.J 

Look  for  one  moment  at  a  high  and  peculiar  interest  of 
the  nation,  the  administration  of  justice.  Perhaps  no  part 

*  Document;  Report  of  Secretary  of  War;  No.  2.  Senate,  27th  Congress, 
2d  session ;  where  it  is  proposed  to  invest  in  a  system  of  land  defences 
$51,677,929. 

t  Exec.  Documents  of  1842-43,  Vol.  I.  No.  3. 

t  From  Mr.  Longfellow's  "  Arsenal  at  Springfield"  I  extract  two  stanzas,  which, 
in  poetical  expression,  are  the  least  attractive  of  any  in  the  poem,  but  which  com 
mend  themselves  by  their  intrinsic  truth  and  moral  force  : 

Were  half  the  power  that  fills  the  world  with  terror, 
Were  half  the  wealth,  bestowed  on  camps  and  courts, 

Given  to  redeem  the  human  mind  from  error, 
There  were  no  need  of  arsenals  and  forts. 

The  warrior's  name  would  be  a  name  abhorred ! 

And  every  nation  that  should  lift  again 
Its  hand  against  its  brother,  on  its  forehead 

Would  wear  for  evermore  the  curse  of  Cain ! 


53 

of  our  system  is  regarded  with  more  pride  and  confidence  by 
the  enlightened  sense  of  the  country.     To  this,  indeed,  all  the 
other  concerns  of  Government,  all  its  complications  of  ma 
chinery,  are  in  a  manner  subordinate,  since  it  is  for  the  sake 
of  justice   that  men  come  together  in  states  and  establish 
laws.     What  part  of  the  Government  can  compare  in  im 
portance   with  the   Federal    Judiciary,  that  great  balance 
wheel  of  the  Constitution,  controlling  the   relations  of  the 
States  to  each  other,  the  legislation  of  Congress  and  of  the 
States,  besides  private  interests  to  an  incalculable  amount  ? 
Nor  can  the  citizen,  who  discerns  the  true  glory  of  his  coun 
try,  fail  to  recognize  in  the  judicial  labors  of  MARSHALL,  now 
departed,  and  in  the  immortal  judgments  of  STORY,  who  is 
still  spared  to  us, — serus  in  cesium  redeat — a  higher  claim  to 
admiration  and  gratitude  than  can  be  found  in  any  triumph 
of  battle.     The  expenses  of  the  administration  of  Justice, 
throughout  the  United  States,  under  the  Federal  Government, 
in   1842,  embracing  the  salaries  of  the  judges,  the  cost  of 
juries,  court-houses  and  all  officers  thereof,  in  short  all  the 
outlay  by  which  Justice,  according  to  the  requirements  of 
Magna  Charta,  is  carried  to  every  man's  door,  amounted  to 
$560,990,  a  larger  sum  than  is  usually  appropriated  for  this 
purpose,  but  how  insignificant  compared  with  the  demands  of 
the  army  and  navy ! 

Let  me  allude  to  one  more  curiosity  of  waste.  It  appears, 
by  a  calculation  founded  on  the  expenses  of  the  Navy,  that 
the  average  cost  of  each  gun,  carried  over  the  ocean,  for 
one  year,  amounts  to  about  fifteen  thousand  dollars  ;*  a  sum 
sufficient  to  sustain  ten  professors  of  Colleges,  and  equal  to 
the  salaries  of  all  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Mas 
sachusetts  and  the  Governor  combined  ! 

Such  are  a  few  brief  illustrations  of  the  tax  which  the 
nations  of  the  world,  and  particularly  our  own  country,  im 
pose  on  the  people,  in  time  of  profound  peace,  for  no  purpose 
of  good,  but  only  in  obedience  to  the  spirit  of  war.  As  we 
wearily  climb,  in  this  survey,  from  expenditure  to  expendi 
ture,  from  waste  to  waste,  we  seem  to  pass  beyond  the  region 
of  ordinary  calculation  ;  Alps  on  Alps  arise,  on  whose  crown 
ing  heights  of  everlasting  ice,  far  above  the  habitations  of 
man,  where  no  green  thing  lives,  where  no  creature  draws  its 
breath,  we  behold  the  cold,  sharp,  flashing  glacier  of  War. 

In  the  contemplation  of  this  spectacle  the  soul  swells  with 

*  Mr.  Coues'  tract,  What  is  the  use  of  the  Navy  of  the  United  States  ? 


54 

alternate  despair  and  hope ;  with  despair,  at  the  thought  of 
such  wealth,  capable  of  rendering  such  service  to  humanity, 
not  merely  wasted  but  given  to  perpetuate  hate  ;  with  hope, 
as  the  blessed  vision  arises  of  the  devotion  of  all  these  incal 
culable  means  to  the  purposes  of  peace.  The  whole  world 
labors  at  this  moment  with  poverty  and  distress ;  and  the 
painful  question  occurs  to  every  observer,  in  Europe  as  well 
as  at  home, — what  shall  become  of  the  poor, — the  increasing 
standing  army  of  the  poor.  Could  the  humble  voice  that 
now  addresses  you  penetrate  those  distant  counsels,  or  coun 
sels  nearer  home,  it  would  say,  disband  your  standing  armies 
of  soldiers;  abandon  your  fortifications  and  arsenals,  or  dedi 
cate  them  to  works  of  beneficence,  as  the  statue  of  Jupiter 
Capitol inus  was  changed  to  the  image  of  a  Christian  saint ; 
apply  your  navy  to  purposes  of  commerce  ;  in  fine,  utterly 
forsake  the  present  incongruous  system  of  armed  peace  ! 

That  I  may  not  seem  to  press  to  this  conclusion  with  too 
much  haste,  at  least  as  regards  our  own  country,  I  shall  con 
sider  briefly,  as  becomes  the  occasion,  the  asserted  usefulness 
of  the  national  defences  which  it  is  proposed  to  abandon. 

What  is  the  use  of  the  Standing  Army  of  the  United 
States  ?  It  has  been  a  principle  of  freedom,  during  many 
generations,  to  avoid  a  standing  army  ;  and  one  of  the  com 
plaints  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence  was  that  George 
III.  had  quartered  large  bodies  of  troops  in  the  colonies.  For 
the  first  few  years,  after  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Consti 
tution,  during  our  weakness,  before  our  power  was  assured, 
before  our  name  had  become  respected  in  the  family  of  na 
tions,  under  the  administration  of  Washington,  a  small  sum 
was  deemed  ample  for  the  military  establishment  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  only  when  the  country,  at  a  later  day, 
had  been  touched  by  the  insanity  of  war,  that  it  surrendered 
to  military  prejudices,  and,  abandoning  the  true  economy  of 
a  Republic,  cultivated  a  military  spirit,  and  lavished  the 
means,  which  it  begrudged  to  the  purposes  of  Peace,  in  vain 
preparation  for  War.  It  may  now  be  said  of  the  army  of 
the  United  States,  as  Dunning  said  of  the  prerogatives  of 
the  crown,  it  has  increased,  is  increasing,  and  ought  to  be 
diminished.  At  this  moment  there  are  more  than  fifty-five 
military  posts  in  the  country.  Of  what  use  is  the  detach 
ment  of  the  second  regiment  of  Artillery  in  the  quiet  town 
of  New  London  in  Connecticut?  Of  what  use  is  the  de 
tachment  of  the  first  regiment  of  Artillery  in  that  pleasant  re 
sort  of  fashion,  Newport  ?  No  person,  who  has  not  lost  all 


55 

sensibility  to  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  can  observe  with 
out  mortification,  the  discipline,  the  drilling,  the  marching  and 
countermarching,  the  putting  guns  to  the  shoulder  and  the 
dropping  them  to  the  earth,  which  fill  the  lives  of  the  poor 
soldiers,  and  prepare  them  to  become  the  mere  inanimate 
parts  of  a  mere  machine,  to  which  the  great  living  master  of 
the  art  of  war  has  likened  an  army.  And  this  sensibility 
must  be  much  more  offended  when  he  beholds  a  number  of 
the  ingenuous  youth  of  the  country,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Government,  amidst  the  bewitching  scenery  of  West  Point, 
trained  to  these  same  farcical  and  humiliating  exercises.*  It 
is  time  that  the  people  should  declare  the  army  to  be  an 
utterly  useless  branch  of  the  public  service  ;  but  not  merely 
useless,  also  a  seminary  of  idleness  and  vice,  breeding  man 
ners  uncongenial  with  our  institutions,  shortening  the  lives  of 
those  whom  it  enlists,  and  maintained  at  an  expense,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  which  far  surpasses  all  that  is  bestowed  on 
all  the  civil  purposes  of  the  Government. 

But  I  hear  the  voice  of  some  defender  of  this  abuse,  some 
upholder  of  this  "rotten  borough"  of  our  Constitution, 
crying,  the  army  is  needed  for  the  defence  of  the  country ! 
As  well  might  you  say,  that  the  shadow  is  needed  for  the 
defence  of  the  body ;  for  what  is  the  army  of  the  United 
States  but  the  feeble  shadow  of  the  power  of  the  American 
people !  In  placing  the  army  on  its  present  footing,  so  small 
in  numbers  compared  with  the  forces  of  the  great  European 
States,  our  Government  has  tacitly  admitted  its  superfluous- 
ness  as  a  means  of  defence.  Moreover,  there  is  one  plea  for 
standing  armies  in  Europe  which  cannot  prevail  here.  They 
are  supposed  to  be  needed  by  Governments,  which  do  not 
proceed  from  the  popular  voice,  to  sustain  their  power.  The 
monarchs  of  the  Old  World,  like  the  chiefs  of  the  ancient 
German  tribes,  are  upborne  on  the  shields  of  the  soldiery. 
Happily  with  us  the  Government  springs  from  the  hearts  of 
the  people,  and  needs  no  janizaries  for  its  support.  It  only 
remains  to  declare  distinctly,  that  the  country  will  repose,  in 
the  consciousness  of  right,  without  the  wasteful  excess  of 
supporting  soldiers,  lazy  consumers  of  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
who  might  do  the  State  good  service  in  the  various  depart 
ments  of  useful  industry. 

What  is  the  use  of  the  Navy  of  the  United  States  ?     The 


*  The  amount  appropriated  by  Congress  for  the  institution  of  West  Point,  since 
its  establishment,  is  $4,002,901  15. 


56 

annual  expense  of  our  Navy  for  several  years  past  has  been 
upwards  of  six  millions  of  dollars.  For  what  pupose  is  this 
paid  ?  Not  for  the  apprehension  of  pirates ;  for  frigates 
and  ships  of  the  line  are  of  too  great  bulk  to  be  of  service 
for  this  purpose.  Not  for  the  suppression  of  the  Slave 
Trade  ;  for  under  the  stipulations  with  Great  Britain,  we 
employ  only  eighty  guns  in  this  holy  alliance.  Not  to  pro 
tect  our  coasts  ;  for  all  agree  that  our  few  ships  would  form 
an  unavailing  defence  against  any  serious  attack.  Not  for 
these  purposes  all  will  admit;  but  for  the  protection  of  our 
Navigation.  This  is  not  the  occasion  for  minute  calcula 
tions.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  an  intelligent  merchant,  who  has 
been  extensively  engaged  in  commerce  for  the  last  twenty 
years,  and  who  speaks,  therefore,  with  the  authority  of 
knowledge,  has  demonstrated  in  a  tract  of  perfect  clearness, 
that  the  annual  amount  of  the  freights  of  the  whole  mercan 
tile  marine  of  the  country  does  not  equal  the  annual  expendi 
ture  of  the  Navy  of  the  United  States.*  Protection  at  such 
cost  is  more  ruinous  than  one  of  Pyrrhus'  victories  ! 

In  objecting  to  the  Navy,  I  wish  to  limit  myself  to  the 
Navy  as  an  asserted  arm  of  national  defence.  So  far  as  it 
may  be  necessary,  as  a  part  of  the  police  of  the  seas,  to 
purge  them  of  pirates,  and  above  all  to  defeat  the  hateful 
traffic  in  human  flesh,  it  is  a  proper  arm  of  government.  The 
free  cities  of  Hamburgh  and  Bremen,  survivors  of  the  great 
Hanseatic  League,  with  a  commerce  that  whitens  the  most 
distant  seas,  are  without  a  single  ship  of  war.  Let  the  United 
States  be  willing  to  follow  their  wise  example,  and  abandon 
an  institution  which  has  already  become  a  vain  and  most  ex 
pensive  TOY  ! 

What  is  the  use  of  the  fortifications  of  the  United  States  ? 
We  have  already  seen  the  enormous  sums  which  have  been 
locked  in  the  dead  hands,  in  the  odious  mortmain,  of  their 
everlasting  masonry.  This  is  in  the  hope  of  saving  the  coun 
try  thereby  from  the  horrors  of  conquest  and  bloodshed. 
And  here  let  me  meet  this  suggestion  with  frankness  and 
distinctness.  I  will  not  repeat  what  has  been  set  forth  in  an 
earlier  part  of  my  remarks,  the  considerations  showing  that 
in  our  age,  no  war  of  strict  self-defence  can  possibly  arise,  no 


*  I  refer  to  Mr.  Coues'  tract,  "What  is  the  use  of  the  Navy  of  the  United 
States?"  which  has  already  produced  a  strong  effect  on  many  minds,  the  natural 
consequence  of  its  unanswerable  arguments  and  statements.  No  person  should 
undertake  to  vindicate  the  Navy,  or  sanction  appropriations  for  its  support,  with 
out  answering  this  tract. 


57 

war  which  can  be  supported  by  the  consciences  of  those  even 
who  disclaim  the  highest  standard  of  the  gospel ;  but  I  will 
suppose  the  case  of  a  war,  unjust  and  unchristian  it  must  be, 
between  our  country  and  one  of  the  great  powers  of  Europe. 
In  such  a  war,  what  would  be  the  effect  of  the  fortifications  ? 
Clearly  to  invite  the  attack,  which  they  would  in  all  proba 
bility  be  inadequate  to  defeat.  It  is  a  rule  now  recognized 
even  in  the  barbarous  code  of  war,  one  branch  of  which  has 
been  illustrated  with  admirable  ability  in  the  diplomatic  cor 
respondence  of  Mr.  Webster,  that  non-combatants  shall  not, 
in  any  way,  be  molested,  and  that  the  property  of  private 
persons  shall  in  all  cases  be  held  sacred.  So  firmly  did  the 
Duke  of  Wellington  act  upon  this  rule,  that  throughout  the 
murderous  campaigns  of  Spain,  and  afterwards  when  he  en 
tered  France,  flushed  with  the  victory  of  Waterloo,  he  di 
rected  that  his  army  should  pay  for  all  provisions,  and  even 
for  the  forage  of  their  horses.  The  war  is  carried  on  against 
public  property,-— against  fortifications,  navy-yards  and  arse 
nals.  But  if  these  do  not  exist,  there  can  be  no  aliment,  no 
fuel  for  the  flarne.  Every  new  fortification  and  every  addi 
tional  gun  in  our  harbor  is,  therefore,  not  a  safeguard,  but  a 
source  of  danger  to  our  city.  Better  throw  them  in  the  sea, 
than  madly  allow  them  to  draw  to  our  homes  the  lightning  of 
battle,  without,  alas,  any  conductor  to  hurry  its  terrors  inno 
cently  beneath  the  concealing  bosom  of  the  earth  ! 

What  is  the  use  of  the  militia  of  the  United  States  ? 
This  immense  system  spreads,  with  more  than  a  hundred 
arms  over  the  whole  country,  sucking  its  best  life-blood,  the 
unbought  energies  of  the  youth.  The  same  farcical  discipline, 
shouldering  arms  and  carrying  arms,  which  we  have  observed 
in  the  soldier,  absorbs  their  time,  though  of  course,  to  a  much 
less  degree  than  in  the  regular  army.  We  read  with  aston 
ishment  of  the  painted  flesh,  and  uncouth  vestments  of  our 
progenitors,  the  ancient  Britons.  The  generation  will  soon 
come  that  will  regard  with  equal  wonder  the  pictures  of  their 
ancestors,  closely  dressed  in  padded  arid  well-buttoned  coats 
of  blue,  "  besmeared  with  gold,"  surmounted  by  a  huge 
mountain  cap  of  shaggy  bear-skin,  and  with  a  barbarous 
device,  typical  of  brute  force,  a  tiger,  painted  on  oil  skin, 
tied  with  leather  to  their  backs  !  In  the  streets  of  Pisa,  the 
galley-slaves  are  compelled  to  wear  dresses  stamped  with  the 
name  of  the  crime  for  which  they  are  suffering  punishment ; 
as  theft,  robbery,  murder.  It  is  not  a  little  strange,  that 
Christians,  living  in  a  land  "where  bells  have  tolled  to 


58 

church,"  should  voluntarily  adopt  devices  which,  if  they  have 
any  meaning,  recognize  the  example  of  beasts  as  worthy  of 
imitation  by  man.*  The  general  considerations  which  belong 
to  the  subject  of  preparations  for  war  will  illustrate  the  in 
anity  of  the  militia  for  purposes  of  national  defence.  I  do 
not  know,  indeed,  that  it  is  now  strongly  advocated  on  this 
ground.  It  is  most  often  spoken  of  as  an  important  part  of 
the  police  of  the  country.  I  would  not  undervalue  the  bles 
sings  to  be  derived  from  an  active,  efficient,  ever-wakeful 
police  ;  and  I  believe  that  such  a  police  has  been  long  required 
in  our  country.  But  the  militia,  composed  of  youth  of  un 
doubted  character,  though  of  untried  courage,  is  clearly  in 
adequate  for  this  purpose.  No  person,  who  has  seen  them  in 
an  actual  riot,  can  hesitate  in  this  judgment.t  A  very  small 
portion  of  the  means  which  are  absorbed  by  the  militia, 


*  It  is  a  curious  illustration  of  the  low  standard  of  conduct  to  which  men  and 
nations  have  appealed,  that  they  have  chosen  emblems  and  armorial  bearings 
from  beasts  and  birds  of  prey.  The  lion  is  rampant  on  the  flag  of  England ;  the 
leopard  on  that  of  Scotland  ;  a  double-headed  eagle  spreads  its  wings  on  the  im 
perial  standard  of  Austria.  After  exhausting  the  known  kingdom  of  nature,  the 
pennons  of  knights,  like  the  knapsacks  of  our  militia,  were  disfigured  by  imaginary 
and  impossible  monsters,  griffins,  hippogriffs,  unicorns,  all  intended  to  represent 
the  excess  of  brute  force.  Froissart  records  as  a  miracle,  that  a  dove  once  rested 
in  its  flight  on  the  royal  banner  of  France.  The  people  of  Massachusetts  have 
unconsciously  adopted  the  same  degrading  standard.  In  the  escutcheon  which 
is  used  as  the  seal  of  the  State,  there  is  a  most  unfortunate  combination  of  dis 
agreeable  and  unworthy  suggestions.  On  that  part  which,  in  the  language  of 
heraldry,  is  termed  the  shield,  is  placed  an  Indian,  with  a  bow  in  his  hand  ;  cer 
tainly  no  agreeable  memento,  except  to  those  who  find  honor  in  the  disgraceful 
wars  in  which  our  fathers  robbed  and  murdered  King  Philip,  of  Pokanoket,  and 
his  tribe,  the  rightful  possessors  of  the  soil.  The  crest  is  a  raised  arm,  holding, 
in  a  threatening  attitude,  a  drawn  sabre ;  being  precisely  the  emblem  which  is 
borne  on  the  flag  of  Algiers!  The  scroll,  or  legend,  consists  of  the  last  of  those 
two  lines,  in  bad  Latin,  from  an  unknown  source,  which  we  first  encounter,  as 
they  were  inscribed  by  Algernon  Sydney,  in  the  Album  at  the  University  of  Co 
penhagen,  in  Denmark  : 

Minus  hoBC  inimica  tyrannis, 
Ense  petit  placidam  sub  libertate  quietem. 

The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  has  adopted,  with  singular  unanimity,  resolu 
tions  expressing  its  earnest  desire  for  the  establishment  of  a  General  Convention, 
or  Congress  of  Nations,  to  adjudge  questions  between  nations,  and  thus  supersede 
the  imagined  necessity  of  war.  Would  it  not  be  an  act  of  moral  dignity,  becom 
ing  the  character  which  it  vaunts  before  the  world,  to  adopt  a  new  seal ;  at  least  to 
erase  that  Algerine  emblem,  fit  only  for  Corsairs,  and  those  words  of  barbarous 
Latin,  which  can  awaken  only  the  idea  of  ignorance,  and  brute  force.  If  a  Latin 
motto  be  needed,  it  might  be  those  words  of  Virgil,  ((Pacisque  imponere  mo- 
rem;"  or  that  sentence  of  noble  truth  from  Cicero,  "  Sine  SUMMA  JUSTITIA  rem- 
publicam  geri  nullo  modo  posse."  De  Republ.  Lib.  II.  Cap.  44. 

t  The  riot  in  Broad  Street,  in  1837,  is  often  invoked  by  the  devotees  of  the 
militia  (for  it  has  devotees !)  as  an  instance  of  the  important  aid  derived  from  this 
arm  of  the  police.  It  will  not  be  denied,  however,  that  an  apparatus  much  less 
costly  would  have  sufficed  for  the  purpose.  I  hope  I  shall  be  pardoned  if  I  ven 
ture  to  correct  a  misapprehension  which  has  extensively  prevailed  with  regard  to' 


59 

would  provide  a  police  that  should  be  competent  to  all  the 
emergencies  of  domestic  disorder  and  violence. 

The  City  of  Boston  has  long  been  convinced  of  the  inex 
pediency  of  a  Fire  Department  composed  of  mere  volunteers. 
It  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  similar  conviction  may  pervade  the 
country  with  regard  to  the  police.  I  am  well  aware,  however, 
that  efforts  to  abolish  the  militia  system  will  be  encountered 
by  some  of  the  dearest  prejudices  of  the  common  mind  ;  not 
only  by  the  war  spirit ;  but  by  that  other  spirit,  which  first 
animates  childhood,  and  at  a  later  day,  "  children  of  a  larger 
growth,"  inviting  to  finery  of  dress  and  parade, — the  same 
spirit  which  fantastically  bedecks  the  dusky  feather-cinctured 
chiefs  of  the  soft  regions  warmed  by  the  tropical  sun ;  which 
inserts  rings  in  the  noses  of  the  North  American  Indians; 
which  slits  the  ears  of  the  Australian  savages ;  and  tattoos 
the  New  Zealand  cannibals. 

Such  is  a  review  of  the  true  character  and  value  of  the 
national  defences  of  the  United  States  !  It  will  be  observed 
that  I  have  thus  far  regarded  them  in  the  plainest  light  of 
ordinary  worldly  economy,  without  reference  to  those  higher 
considerations,  founded  on  the  history  and  nature  of  man,  and 
the  truths  of  Christianity,  which  pronounce  them  to  be  vain. 
It  is  grateful  to  know,  that  though  they  may  yet  have  the 
support  of  what  Jeremy  Taylor  calls  the  "  popular  noises," 
still  the  more  economical,  more  humane,  more  wise,  more 
Christian  system  is  daily  commending  itself  to  wide  circles  of 
the  good  people  of  the  land.  All  the  virtues  that  truly  elevate 
a  state  are  on  its  side.  Economy,  sick  of  the  pigmy  efforts 
to  staunch  the  smallest  fountains  and  rills  of  exuberant  ex 
penditure,  pleads  that  here  is  an  endless,  boundless  river, 
an  Amazon  of  waste,  rolling  its  turbid,  unhealthy  waters 
vainly  to  the  sea.  It  chides  us  with  an  unnatural  inconsis 
tency  when  we  strain  at  a  little  twine  and  red  tape,  and 
swallow  the  monstrous  cables  and  armaments  of  war.  Hu 
manity  pleads  for  the  poor  from  whom  such  mighty  means 
are  withdrawn.  Wisdom  frowns  on  these  preparations  as  cal 
culated  to  nurse  sentiments  inconsistent  with  Peace.  Christi 
anity  calmly  rebukes  the  spirit  in  which  they  have  their 


the  services  of  the  militia  on  that  occasion.  I  had  been  on  the  ground,  and  in 
the  very  houses  the  scene  of  the  riot,  for  an  hour  previous  to  the  appearance  of 
the  militia,  and  am  able  to  state  distinctly,  that  before  this  arm  of  the  police  was 
discerned  in  the  street  moving  along  "  by  blore  of  trump,  and  thump  of  drum," 
the  riot  had  ceased.  A  small  number  of  intelligent,  fearless  and  unarmed  men 
could  have  quelled  it  at  a  much  earlier  moment. 


60 

origin,  as  being  of  little  faith,  and  treacherous  to  her  high 
behests ;  while  History  shows  the  sure  progress  of  man,  like 
the  lion  in  Paradise  still  "  pawing  to  get  free  his  hinder  parts," 
but  certain,  if  he  be  true  to  his  nature,  to  emancipate  himself 
from  the  restraints  of  earth. 

The  sentiment,  that  in  time  of  peace  we  must  prepare  for 
war,  has  been  transmitted  from  distant  ages  when  brute  force 
prevailed.  It  is  the  terrible  inheritance,  the  darnnosa  hxre- 
ditas,  which  painfully  reminds  the  people  of  our  day  of  their 
relations  with  the  Past.  It  belongs  to  the  rejected  dogmas 
of  barbarism.  It  is  the  companion  of  those  harsh  rules  of 
tyranny  by  which  the  happiness  of  the  many  has  been  offered 
up  to  the  propensities  of  the  few.  It  is  the  child  of  suspicion 
and  the  forerunner  of  violence.  Having  in  its  favor  the 
almost  uninterrupted  usage  of  the  world,  it  possesses  a  hold 
on  the  common  mind,  which  is  not  easily  unloosed.  And 
yet  the  conscientious  soul  cannot  fail,  on  careful  observation, 
to  detect  its  most  mischievous  fallacy — a  fallacy  the  most 
costly  the  world  has  witnessed,  and  which  dooms  nations  to 
annual  tributes  in  comparison  with  which  all  that  have  been 
extorted  by  conquests  are  as  the  widow's  mite  by  the  side  of 
Pharisaical  contributions.  So  true  is  what  Rousseau  said, 
and  Guizot  has  since  repeated,  "  that  a  bad  principle  is  far 
worse  than  a  bad  fact ;"  for  the  operations  of  the  one  are 
finite,  while  those  of  the  other  are  infinite. 

I  speak  of  this  principle  with  earnestness ,  for  I  believe  it 
to  be  erroneous  and  false,  founded  in  ignorance  and  barbarism, 
unworthy  of  an  age  of  light,  and  disgraceful  to  Christians. 
I  have  called  it  a  principle  ;  but  it  is  a  mere  prejudice — sus 
tained  by  human  example  only,  and  not  by  lofty  truth — in 
obeying  which  we  imitate  the  early  mariners,  who  steered 
from  headland  to  headland  and  hugged  the  shore,  unwilling 
to  venture  upon  the  broad  ocean,  where  their  guide  should 
be  the  luminaries  of  Heaven. 

Dismissing  from  our  minds,  the  actual  usage  of  nations  on 
the  one  side,  and  the  considerations  of  economy  on  the  other, 
and  regarding  preparations  for  war  in  time  of  peace  in  the 
clear  light  of  reason,  in  a  just  appreciation  of  the  nature  of 
man,  and  in  the  injunctions  of  the  highest  truth,  and  they 
cannot  fail  to  be  branded  as  most  pernicious.  They  are  per 
nicious  on  two  grounds ;  first,  because  they  inflame  the 
people,  who  make  them,  exciting  them  to  deeds  of  violence 
which  otherwise  would  be  most  alien  to  their  minds ;  and 
second,  because  having  their  origin  in  the  low  motive  of  dis- 


61 

trust  and  hate,  they  inevitably,  by  a  sure  law  of  the  human 
mind,  excite  a  corresponding  feeling  in  other  nations.  Thus 
they  are  in  fact  not  the  preservers  of  peace,  but  the  provokers 
of  war. 

In  illustration  of  the  first  of  these  grounds,  it  will  occur  to 
every  inquirer,  that  the  possession  of  power  is  always  in  itself 
dangerous,  that  it  tempts  the  purest  and  highest  natures  to 
self-indulgence,  that  it  can  rarely  be  enjoyed  without  abuse; 
nor  is  the  power  to  employ  force  in  war,  or  otherwise,  an 
exception  to  this  law.  History  teaches  that  the  nations 
possessing  the  greatest  military  forces,  have  always  been  the 
most  belligerent ;  while  the  feebler  powers  have  enjoyed,  for 
a  longer  period,  the  blessings  of  Peace.  The  din  of  war 
resounds  throughout  more  than  seven  hundred  years  of 
Roman  history,  with  only  two  short  lulls  of  repose ;  while 
smaller  states,  less  potent  in  arms,  and  without  the  excite 
ment  to  quarrels  on  this  account,  have  enjoyed  long  eras  of 
Peace.  It  is  not  in  the  history  of  nations  only,  that  we  find 
proofs  of  this  law.  Like  every  great  moral  principle,  it  applies 
equally  to  individuals.  The  experience  of  private  life,  in  all 
ages,  confirms  it.  The  wearing  of  arms  has  always  been 
a  provocative  to  combat.  It  has  excited  the  spirit  and  fur 
nished  the  implements  of  strife.  As  we  revert  to  the  progress 
of  society  in  modern  Europe,  we  find  that  the  odious  system 
of  private  quarrels,  of  hostile  meetings  even  in  the  street, 
continued  so  long  as  men  persevered  in  the  habit  of  wearing 
arms.  Innumerable  families  were  thinned  by  death  received 
in  these  hasty  and  often  unpremeditated  encounters;  and  the 
lives  of  scholars  and  poets  were  often  exposed  to  their  rude 
chances.  Marlowe,  "  with  all  his  rare  learning  and  wit," 
perished  ignominiously  under  the  weapon  of  an  unknown  ad 
versary;  and  Savage,  whose  genius  and  misfortune  inspired 
the  friendship  and  the  eulogies  of  Johnson,  was  tried  for  mur 
der  committed  in  a  sudden  broil.  "  The  expert  swordsman," 
says  Mr.  Jay,*  "  the  practised  marksman,  is  ever  more  ready 
to  engage  in  personal  combats,  than  the  man  who  is  unaccus 
tomed  to  the  use  of  deadly  weapons.  In  those  portions  of 
our  country  where  it  is  supposed  essential  to  personal  safety 
to  go  armed  with  pistols  and  bowie-knives,  mortal  affrays 
are  so  frequent  as  to  excite  but  little  attention,  and  to  secure, 
with  rare  exceptions,  impunity  to  the  murderer ;  whereas,  at 
the  North  and  East,  where  we  are  unprovided  with  such 

*  Address  before  the  American  Peace  Society,  pp.  23,  24. 


62 

facilities  for  taking  life,  comparatively  few  murders  of  the 
kind  are  perpetrated.  We  might,  indeed,  safely  submit  the 
decision  of  the  principle  we  are  discussing  to  the  calculations 
of  pecuniary  interest.  Let  two  men,  equal  in  age  and  health, 
apply  for  an  insurance  on  their  lives ;  one  known  to  be  ever 
armed  to  defend  his  honor  and  his  life  against  every  assail 
ant;  and  the  other  a  meek,  unresisting  Quaker.  Can  we 
doubt  for  a  moment  which  of  these  men  would  be  deemed 
by  the  Insurance  Company  most  likely  to  reach  a  good  old 
age?" 

The  second  of  these  grounds  is  a  part  of  the  unalterable 
nature  of  man,  which  was  recognized  in  early  ages,  though 
unhappily  it  has  been  rarely  made  the  basis  of  intercourse 
among  nations.  It  is  an  expansion  of  the  old  Horatian  adage, 
Si  vis  me  Jlere,  dolendum  est  primum  ipsi  tibi;  if  you 
wish  me  to  weep,  you  must  yourself  first  weep.  So  are  we 
all  knit  together  that  the  feelings  in  our  own  bosom  awaken 
corresponding  feelings  in  the  bosoms  of  others ;  as  harp  an 
swers  to  harp  in  its  softest  vibrations;  as  deep  responds  to  deep 
in  the  might  of  its  passions.  What  within  us  is  good  invites 
the  good  in  our  brother;  generosity  begets  generosity;  love 
wins  love  ;  Peace  secures  Peace  ;  while  all  within  us  that  is 
bad  challenges  the  bad  in  our  brother ;  distrust  engenders 
distrust;  hate  provokes  hate;  War  arouses  War.  Life  is  full 
of  illustrations  of  this  beautiful  law.  Even  the  miserable 
maniac,  in  whose  mind  the  common  rules  of  conduct  are 
overthrown,  confesses  its  overruling  power,  and  the  vacant 
stare  of  madness  may  be  illumined  by  a  word  of  love.  The 
wild  beasts  confess  it;  and  what  is  the  interesting  story  of  Or 
pheus,  whose  music  drew  in  listening  rapture  the  lions  and  pan 
thers  of  the  forest,  but  an  expression  of  this  prevailing  law?* 

Literature  abounds  in  illustrations  of  this  principle.  Look 
ing  back  to  the  early  dawn  of  the  world,  one  of  the  most 
touching  scenes  which  we  behold,  illumined  by  that  Auroral 
light,  is  the  peaceful  visit  of  the  aged  Priam  to  the  tent  of 
Achilles  to  entreat  the  body  of  his  son.  The  fierce  combat 
has  ended  in  the  death  of  Hector,  whose  unhonored  corse  the 

*  There  is  a  striking  illustration  of  this  law  in  the  incident  recorded  by  Homer, 
in  the  Odyssey  (XIV.  30,  31),  where  Ulysses,  on  reaching  his  loved  Ithaca,  is 
beset  by  dogs,  who  are  described  as  wild  beasts  in  ferocity,  and  who  barking 
rushed  towards  him;  but  he,  with  craft,  (that  is  the  word  of  Homer)  seats  him- 
self  upon  the  earth,  and  lets  his  staff  fall  from  his  hands ;  thus  in  unarmed  repose 
finding  protection.  A  similar  incident  is  noticed  by  Mr.  Mure  in  his  entertaining 
travels  in  Greece ;  and  also  by  Mr.  Borrow  in  his  Bible  in  Spain.  Pliny  remarks 
that  all  dogs  may  be  appeased  in  the  same  way.  Impetus  eorum,  et  saevitia  miti- 
gantur  ab  homine  coneidente  humi.  Nat.  Hist.  Lib.  VIII.  cap.  40. 


63 

bloody  Greek  has  already  trailed  behind  his  chariot.  The 
venerable  father,  after  twelve  days  of  grief,  is  moved  to  efforts 
to  regain  the  remains  of  the  Hector  he  had  so  dearly  loved. 
He  leaves  his  lofty  cedarn  chamber,  and  with  a  single  aged 
attendant,  unarmed,  repairs  to  the  Grecian  camp,  by  the  side 
of  the  distant  sounding  sea.  Entering  alone,  he  finds  Achil 
les  within  his  tent ;  in  the  company  of  two  of  his  chiefs.  He 
grasps  his  knees,  and  kisses  those  terrible  homicidal  hands, 
which  had  taken  the  life  of  his  son.  The  heart  of  the  in 
flexible,  the  angry,  the  inflamed  Achilles  is  touched  by  the 
sight  which  he  beholds,  and  responds  to  the  feelings  of  Priam. 
He  takes  the  suppliant  by  the  hand,  seats  him  by  his  side, 
consoles  his  grief,  refreshes  his  weary  body,  and  concedes  to 
the  prayers  of  a  weak,  unarmed  old  man,  what  all  Troy  in 
arms  could  not  win.*  In  this  scene  the  poet,  with  uncon 
scious  power,  has  presented  a  picture  of  the  omnipotence  of 
that  law  of  our  nature,  making  all  mankind  of  kin,  in  obedi 
ence  to  which  no  word  of  kindness,  no  act  of  confidence,  falls 
idly  to  the  earth. 

Among  the  legendary  passages  of  Roman  history,  perhaps 
none  makes  a  deeper  impression,  than  that  scene,  after  the 
Roman  youth  had  been  consumed  at  Allia,  and  the  invading 
Gauls  under  Brennus  had  entered  the  city,  where  we  behold 
the  venerable  Senators  of  the  Republic,  too  old  to  flee,  and 
careless  of  surviving  the  Roman  name,  seated  each  on  his 
curule  chair,  in  a  temple,  unarmed,  looking,  as  Livy  says, 
more  august  than  mortal,  and  with  the  majesty  of  the  gods. 
The  Gauls  gaze  on  them  as  upon  sacred  images,  and  the 
hand  of  slaughter,  which  had  raged  through  the  streets  of 
Rome,  is  stayed  by  the  sight  of  an  assembly  of  unarmed  old 
men.  At  length  a  Gaul  approaches  and  gently  strokes  with 
his  hands  the  silver  beard  of  a  Senator,  who,  indignant  at  the 
license,  smites  the  barbarian  with  his  ivory  staff;  which  was 
the  signal  for  general  vengeance.  Think  you,  that  a  band  of 
savages  could  have  slain  these  Senators,  if  the  appeal  to 
force  had  not  first  been  made  by  one  of  their  own  number,  t 


*  This  scene  fills  a  large  part  of  a  book  of  the  Iliad.  (XXIV.)  It  is  instructive 
to  all,  who  would  know  what  commends  itself  most  truly  to  the  heart  of  man, 
what  is  most  truly  grand,  to  observe  that  the  passages  of  Homer  which  receive 
the  most  unquestioned  admiration  are — not  the  bloody  combats  even  of  the  bravest 
chiefs,  even  of  the  gods  themselves — but  those  two  passages  in  which  he  has 
painted  the  gentle,  unwarlike  affections  of  our  nature;  the  parting  of  Hector  and 
Andromache,  and  the  supplication  of  Priam. 

t  This  story  is  recounted  by  Livy,  Lib.  V.  Cap.  4,  2;  also  by  Plutarch  in  his 
life  of  Camillas.  It  is  properly  repudiated  by  Niebuhr  as  a  legend  ;  but  is  none 


64 

Following  this  sentiment  in  the  literature  of  modern  times 
we  find  its  pervading  presence.  I  will  not  dwell  on  the 
examples  which  arise  to  the  mind.*  I  will  allude  only  to 
that  scene  in  Swedish  poetry,  where  Frithiof,  in  deadly  com 
bat  with  Atle,  when  the  falchion  of  the.  latter  broke,  said, 
throwing  away  his  own  weapon  ; — 

Swordless  foeman's  life 

Ne'er  dyed  this  gallant  blade. 

The  two  champions  now  closed  in  mutual  clutch ;  they  hugged 
like  bears,  says  the  Poet ; 

'Tis  o'er;  for  Frithioff's  matchless  strength 

Has  felled  his  ponderous  size ; 
And  'neath  that  knee,  at  giant  length, 

Supine  the  Viking  lies. 
"  But  fails  my  sword,  thou  Berserk  swart !" 

The  voice  rang  far  and  wide, 
"Its  point  should  pierce  thy  inmost  heart, 

Its  hilt  should  drink  the  tide." 
"  Be  free  to  lift  the  weaponed  hand," 

Undaunted  Atle  spoke, 
<e  Hence,  fearless,  quest  thy  distant  brand  T 

Thus  I  abide  the  stroke." 

Frithiof  regains  his  sword,  intent  to  close  the  dread  debate, 
while  his  adversary  awaits  the  stroke  ;  but  his  heart  responds 
to  the  generous  courage  of  his  foe ;  he  cannot  injure  one 
who  has  shown  such  confidence  in  him  ; — 

This  quelled  his  ire,  this  checked  his  arm, 
Outstretched  the  hand  of  peace. ."t 

I  cannot  leave  these  illustrations  without  alluding  particu 
larly  to  the  history  of  the  treatment  of  the  insane,  which  is 
full  of  deep  instruction,  showing  how  strong  in  nature  must 
be  the  principle,  which  leads  us  to  respond  to  the  conduct 
and  feelings  of  others.  When  Pinel  first  proposed  to  remove 
the  heavy  chains  from  the  raving  maniacs  of  the  hospitals  of 

the  less  important,  as  an  illustration  of  that  law,  which  is  considered  in  the  text. 
The  heart  of  man  confesses  that  the  Roman  Senator  provoked  denth  for  himself 
and  associates. 

*  Guizot  preserves  an  instance  of  the  effect  which  was  produced  by  an  unarmed 
man  before  a  violent  multitude,  employing  the  word  instead  of  the  sword.  (Gui 
zot,  Histoire  de  la  Civilization,  Tom.  II.  p.  36.)  Who  can  forget  that  finest  scene 
in  that  noble  historical  romance,  the  Promessi  Sposi,  where  Fra  Christofero,  in 
an  age  of  violence,  after  slaying  a  comrade  in  a  broil,  in  unarmed  penitence, 
seeks  the  presence  of  the  family  and  retainers  of  his  victim,  and  awakens  by  his 
dignified  gentleness,  the  admiration  of  those  who  were  mad  with  the  desire  of 
vengeance?  A  popular  romance,  which  has  just  left  the  press,  and  is  now  read 
in  both  hemispheres,  Le  Juif  Errant,  by  Eugene  Sue,  has  an  interesting  picture, 
at  the  close  of  the  second  volume,  of  the  superiority  of  Christian  courage  over 
the  hired  and  trained  violence  of  soldiers.  See  Appendix,  Note  F. 

t  Tegner's  Frithiof 's  Sago,  Canto  XI.  translated  by  Strong  ;  Longfellow's  Poets 
and  Poetry  of  Europe,  p.  Ml. 


65 

Paris,  he  was  regarded  as  one  who  saw  visions,  or  dreamed 
dreams.  His  wishes  were  gratified  at  last ;  and  the  change 
in  the  conduct  of  his  patients  was  immediate ;  the  wrinkled 
front  of  evil  passions  was  smoothed  into  the  serene  counte 
nance  of  Peace.  The  old  treatment  by  force  is  now  univer 
sally  abandoned ;  the  law  of  love  has  taken  its  place ;  and 
all  these  unfortunates  mingle  together,  unvexed  by  those 
restraints,  which  implied  suspicion,  and,  therefore,  aroused 
opposition.  The  warring  propensities,  which  once  filled  with 
confusion  and  strife  the  hospitals  for  the  insane  while  they 
were  controlled  by  force,  are  a  dark  but  feeble  type  of  the 
present  relations  of  nations,  on  whose  hands  are  the  heavy 
chains  of  military  preparations,  assimilating  the  world  to  one 
great  mad-house ;  while  the  peace  and  good-will  which  now 
abound  in  these  retreats,  are  the  happy  emblems  of  what 
awaits  the  world  when  it  shall  have  the  wisdom  to  recognize 
the  supremacy  of  the  higher  sentiments  of  our  nature ;  of 
gentleness,  of  confidence,  of  love  ; 

making  their  future  might 

Magnetic  o'er  the  fixed  untrembling  heart. 

I  might  also  dwell  on  the  recent  experience,  so  full  of 
delightful  wisdom,  in  the  treatment  of  the  distant,  degraded 
convicts  of  New  South  Wales,*  showing  the  importance  of 
confidence  and  kindness  on  the  part  of  their  overseers,  in 
awakening  a  corresponding  sentiment  even  in  these  outcasts, 
from  whose  souls  virtue  seems,  at  first  view,  to  be  wholly 
blotted  out.  Thus  from  all  quarters,  from  the  far-off  past, 
from  the  far-away  Pacific,  from  the  verse  of  the  poet,  from 
the  legend  of  history,  from  the  cell  of  the  mad-house,  from 
the  assembly  of  transported  criminals,  from  the  experience  of 
daily  life,  from  the  universal  heart  of  man,  ascends  the  spon 
taneous  tribute  to  the  prevailing  power  of  that  law,  according 
to  which  the  human  heart  responds  to  the  feelings  by  which 
it  is  addressed,  whether  of  confidence  or  distrust,  of  love  or 
hate. 

It  will  be  urged  that  these  instances  are  exceptions  to  the 
general  laws  by  which  mankind  are  governed.  It  is  not  so. 
They  are  the  unanswerable  evidence  of  the  real  nature  of 
man.  They  reveal  the  divinity  of  humanity,  out  of  which 
all  goodness,  all  happiness,  all  true  greatness  can  alone 
proceed.  They  disclose  susceptibilities  which  are  general, 
which  are  confined  to  no  particular  race  of  men,  to  no  period 

*  The  reader  is  referred  to  the   several  publications  of  Captain  Machonichie, 
whose  labors  of  beneficence  entitle  him  to  more  than  a  vulgar  military  laurel. 

5 


66 

of  time,  to  no  narrow  circle  of  knowledge  and  refinement — 
susceptibilities  which  are  present  wherever  two  or  more 
human  beings  come  together.  It  is,  then,  on  the  impregnable 
ground  of  the  universal  and  unalterable  nature  of  man,  that 
I  place  the  fallacy  of  that  prejudice,  in  obedience  to  which  in 
time  of  peace  we  prepare  for  war. 

But  this  prejudice  is  not  only  founded  on  a  misconception 
of  the  nature  of  man ;  it  is  abhorrent  to  Christianity,  which 
teaches  that  Love  is  more  puissant  than  Force.  To  the 
reflecting  mind  the  Omnipotence  of  God  himself  is  less  dis 
cernible  in  the  earthquake  and  the  storm  than  in  the  gentle 
but  quickening  rays  of  the  sun,  and  the  sweet  descending 
dews.  And  he  is  a  careless  observer  who  does  not  recognize 
the  superiority  of  gentleness  and  kindness,  as  a  mode  of 
exercising  influence,  or  securing  rights  among  men.  As  the 
winds  of  violence  beat  about  them,  they  hug  those  mantles, 
which  they  gladly  throw  to  the  earth  under  the  genial  warmth 
of  a  kindly  sun.  Thus  far,  nations  have  drawn  their  weapons 
from  the  earthly  armories  of  Force,  unmindful  of  those  others 
of  celestial  temper  from  the  house  of  Love. 

But  Christianity  not  only  teaches  the  superiority  of  Love 
over  Force ;  it  positively  enjoins  the  practice  of  the  one,  and 
the  rejection  of  the  other.  It  says  :  "  Love  your  neighbors ;" 
but  it  does  not  say :  "  In  time  of  Peace  rear  the  massive 
fortification,  build  the  man  of  war,  enlist  armies,  train  the 
militia,  and  accumulate  military  stores  to  be  employed  in 
future  quarrels  with  your  neighbors."  Its  precepts  go  still 
further.  They  direct  that  we  should  do  unto  others  as  we 
would  have  them  do  unto  us — a  golden  rule  for  the  conduct 
of  nations  as  well  as  individuals,  called  by  Confucius  the 
virtue  of  the  heart,  and  made  by  him  the  basis  of  the  nine 
maxims  of  Government  which  he  presented  to  the  sovereigns 
of  his  country  ;*  but  how  inconsistent  with  that  distrust  of 
others,  in  wrongful  obedience  to  which  nations,  in  time  of 
Peace,  seem  to  sleep  like  soldiers  on  their  arms.  But  its  pre 
cepts  go  still  further.  They  enjoin  patience,  suffering,  for 
giveness  of  evil,  even  the  duty  of  benefiting  a  destroyer,  "  as 
the  sandal  wood,  in  the  instant  of  its  overthrow,  sheds  per 
fume  on  the  axe  which  fells  it."  And  can  a  people,  in  whom 
this  faith  is  more  than  an  idle  word,  consent  to  such  enormous 
sacrifices  of  money,  in  violation  of  its  plainest  precepts  ? 

The  injunction,  "Love  one  another,"  is  applicable  to 
nations  as  well  as  individuals.  It  is  one  of  the  great  laws  of 

*  Oeuvres  de  Bernardin  de  St.  Pierre,  Harmonies  de  la  Nature,  Tom.  10,  p.  138 


67 

Heaven.  And  any  one  may  well  measure  his  nearness  to  God 
by  the  degree  to  which  he  regulates  his  conduct  by  this  truth. 

In  response  to  these  successive  views,  founded  on  consid 
erations  of  economy,  of  the  true  nature  of  man,  and  of 
Christianity,  I  hear  the  skeptical  note  of  some  defender  of 
the  transmitted  order  of  things,  some  one  who  wishes  "  to 
fight  for  Peace,"  saying,  these  views  are  beautiful  but 
visionary  ;  they  are  in  advance  of  the  age  ;  the  world  is  not 
yet  prepared  for  their  reception.  To  such  persons  (if  there 
be  such),  I  would  say ;— nothing  can  be  beautiful  that  is  not 
true ;  but  these  views  are  true  ;  the  time  is  now  come  for 
their  reception  ;  now  is  the  day  and  now  is  the  hour.  Every 
effort  to  impede  their  progress  arrests  the  advancing  hand  on 
the  great  dial-plate  of  human  happiness. 

The  name  of  Washington  is  invoked  as  an  authority  for  a 
prejudice  which  Economy,  Humanity  and  Christianity  all 
declare  to  be  false.  Mighty  and  reverend  as  is  his  name, 
more  mighty  and  more  reverend  is  truth.  The  words  of 
counsel  which  he  gave  were  in  accordance  with  the  spirit  of 
his  age,— an  age  which  was  not  shocked  by  the  slave-trade. 
But  his  lofty  soul,  which  loved  virtue,  and  inculcated  justice 
and  benevolence,  frowns  upon  the  efforts  of  those  who  would 
use  his  authority  as  an  incentive  to  war.  God  forbid  that 
his  sacred  character  should  be  profanely  stretched,  like  the 
skin  of  John  Ziska,  on  a  militia  drum  to  arouse  the  martial 
ardor  of  the  American  people  !* 

*  The  following   table  of  the   Military  and   Naval  Expenditures  of  the  United 
tates,  during  the   eight  years   of  the   administration  of  Washington,  compared 
with  those  for  the  last  eight  years,  to   which  I  have   had   access,  will  show  how 
his  practice  accords  with  that  of  our  day  : 


Years. 

Military  Establishment. 

Naval  Establishment. 

1789-91 
1792 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1796 
Total  during  the  ei^ht  years 

$  835,000 
1,223,594 
1,237,620 
2,733,540 
2,573,059 
1,474,661 

$570 
53  ! 

61,409 
410,562 

274,784 

of  Washington, 

1835 
1836 
1837 
1838 
1839 
1S40 
1842 
1843 

$10,078,092 

9,420,313 
18,466,110 
19,417,274 
19,936,412 
14,268,981 
11,621,438 
13,903,898 
8,248,918 

$847,378 

3,864,939 
5,800,763 
6,852,060 
5,175,771 
6,225,003 
6,124,445 
6,246,503 
7,963,678 

Total  during  eight  years. 

^114.283.244 

&49.053  473 

ring  eigni  years,  $114,283,244  $49,053.473 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  expenditures  for  the  defences  of  the  country,  under 


68 

It  is  melancholy  to  consider  the  impediments  which  truth 
encounters  on  its  first  appearance.  A  large  portion  of  man 
kind,  poising  themselves  on  the  flagitious  fallacy,  that  What 
ever  is,  is  right,  avert  their  countenances  from  all  that  is 
inconsistent  with  established  usage.  I  have  already,  in 
another  part  of  this  address,  set  forth  the  superiority  of  prin 
ciple  to  any  human  example ;  I  would  here  repeat  that  the 
practice  of  nations  can  be  no  apology  for  a  system  which  is 
condemned  by  such  principles  as  I  have  now  considered. 
Truth  enters  the  world  like  a  humble  child,  with  few  to  re 
ceive  her;  it  is  only  when  she  has  grown  in  years  and 
stature,  and  the  purple  flush  of  youthful  strength  beams  from 
her  face,  that  she  is  sought  and  wooed.  It  has  been  thus  in 
all  ages.  Nay,  more  ;  there  is  often  an  irritation  excited  by 
her  presence ;  and  men  who  are  kind  and  charitable  forget 
their  kindness  and  lose  their  charity  towards  the  unaccus 
tomed  stranger.  It  was  this  feeling  which  awarded  a  dungeon 
to  Galileo,  when  he  declared  that  the  earth  moved  round  the 
sun ;  which  neglected  the  great  discovery  of  the  circulation  of 
the  blood  by  Harvey  ;  and  which  bitterly  opposed  the  divine 
philanthropy  of  Clarkson,  when  he  first  denounced  the  wick 
edness  of  the  slave-trade.  But  the  rejected  truths  of  to-day 
shall  become  the  chief  corner-stones  to  the  next  generation. 

Auspicious  omens  in  the  history  of  the  past  and  in  the 
present,  cheer  us  for  the  future.  The  terrible  wars  of  the 
French  Revolution  were  the  violent  rending  of  the  body 
which  preceded  the  exorcism  of  the  fiend.  Since  the  morn 
ing  stars  first  sang  together,  the  world  has  not  witnessed  a 
peace  so  harmonious  and  enduring  as  that  which  now  blesses 
the  Christian  nations.  Great  questions  between  them, 
fraught  with  strife,  and  in  another  age,  sure  heralds  of  war, 
are  now  determined  by  arbitration  or  mediation.  Great  po 
litical  movements,  which  only  a  few  short  years  ago  must 
have  led  to  forcible  rebellion,  are  now  conducted  by  peaceful 
discussion.  Literature,  the  press,  and  various  societies,  all 
join  in  the  holy  work  of  inculcating  good-will  to  man.  The 
spirit  of  humanity  now  pervades  the  best  writings,  whether 


the  sanction  of  Washington,  amounted  to  about  eleven  million  dollars,  while  those 
during  a  recent  similar  period  of  eight  years,  stretch  to  upwards  of  one  hundred 
and  sixty  four  million  of  dollars  /  To  him  who  quotes  the  precept  of  Washing 
ton,  I  commend  the  practice.  All  will  agree  that,  in  this  age,  when  the  whole 
world  is  at  peace,  and  when  our  power  is  assured,  there  is  less  need  of  these  pre 
parations  than  in  an  age  convulsed  with  war,  when  our  power  was  little  respected. 
The  only  semblance  of  an  argument  in  their  favor  is  founded  in  the  increased 
wealth  of  the  country  ;  but  the  capacity  of  the  country  to  endure  taxation  is  no 
criterion  of  its  justice! 


69 

the  elevated  philosophical  inquiries  of  the  Vestiges  of  Crea 
tion,  the  ingenious  but  melancholy  moralizings  of  the  Story 
of  a  Feat  her,  or  the  overflowing  raillery  of  Punch.*  Genius 
can  never  be  so  Promethean  as  when  it  bears  the  heavenly 
fire  of  love  to  the  hearths  of  men. 

It  was  Dr.  Johnson,  in  the  last  age,  who  uttered  the  de 
testable  sentiment,  that  he  liked  "a  good  hater  5"  the  man  of 
this  age  shall  say  he  likes  "  a  good  lover."  A  poet,  whose 
few  verses  will  bear  him  on  his  immortal  flight  with  unflag 
ging  wing,  has  given  expression  to  this  sentiment  in  words  of 
uncommon  pathos  and  power  :t 

He  prayeth  well  who  loveth  well 
All  things,  both  great  and  small. 

He  prayeth  best  who  loveth  best 
Both  man,  and  bird,  and  beast, 
For  the  dear  God  who  loveth  us, 
He  made  and  loveth  all. 

Every  where  the  ancient  law  of  hate  is  yielding  to  the  law 
of  love.  It  is  seen  in  the  change  of  dress ;  the  armor  of 
complete  steel  was  the  habiliment  of  the  knight ;  and  the 
sword  was  an  indispensable  companion  of  the  gentleman  of 
the  last  century ;  but  he  would  be  thought  a  madman  or  a 
bully  who  should  wear  either  now.  It  is  seen  in  the  change 
in  domestic  architecture  ;  the  places  once  chosen  for  castles  or 
houses,  were  in  the  most  savage,  inaccessible  retreats,  where 
the  massive  structure  was  reared,  destined  solely  to  repel  at 
tacks,  and  to  enclose  its  inhabitants.  The  monasteries  and 
churches  were  fortified,  and  girdled  by  towers,  ramparts  and 
ditches,  and  a  child  was  often  stationed  as  a  watchman, — 
not  of  the  night,— but  to  observe  what  passed  at  a  distance, 
and  announce  the  approach  of  the  enemy  !J  The  houses  of 
the  peaceful  citizens  in  towns  were  castellated,  often  without 
so  much  as  an  aperture  for  light  near  the  ground,  and  with 

*  While  this  Oration  was  passing  through  the  press,  I  read  in  one  of  the  public 
prints,  a  letter,  dated  Birmingham,  July  3,  1845,  from  which  I  make  the  following 
extract-  "  The  Peace  Question  makes  rapid  progress  in  this  country.  I  verily 
believe'  that  if  the  people  were  polled  to-morrow,  nine-tenths  of  them  would 
pronounce  all  war  to  be  unchristian,  and  not  a  few  would  vote  for  the  entire  abro- 
aation  of  our  military  and  naval  forces.  The  London  Peace  Society  is  doing 
much  to  deepen  and  confirm  this  feeling,  and  nearly  all  our  cheap  periodicals  are 
peace-toned."  The  last  fact  is  of  peculiar  importance ;  for  it  is  in  this  way  that 
the  hearts  of  the  people  are  to  be  touched.  The  agitation  in  Ireland,  and  that 
gigantic  combination  in  England,  the  Anti  Corn  Law  League,  proceed  on  the 
peace  principle.  "  Remember,"  says  Mr.  O'Connell,  in  words  that  will  be  im 
mortal,  "that  no  political  change  is  worth  a  single  crime,  or  above  all,  a  single 
drop  of  human  blood." 

t  Coleridge;  Ancient  Mariner. 

}  Guizot,  Histoire  de  la  Civilization,  Tom.  Ill, 


70 

loop-holes  above,  through  which  the  shafts  of  the  cross-bow 
might  be  aimed.*  In  the  system  of  fortifications  and  pre 
parations  for  war,  nations  act  towards  each  other  in  the  spirit 
of  distrust  and  barbarism,  which  we  have  traced  in  the  in 
dividual,  but  which  he  has  now  renounced.  In  so  doing, 
they  take  counsel  of  the  wild  boar  in  the  fable,  who  whetted 
his  tusks  on  a  tree  of  the  forest,  when  no  enemy  was  near, 
saying  that  in  time  of  peace  he  must  prepare  for  war.  But 
has  not  the  time  now  come,  when  man  whom  God  created  in 
his  own  image,  and  to  whom  He  gave  the  heaven-directed 
countenance,  shall  cease  to  look  down  to  the  beasts  for  ex 
amples  of  conduct  ? 

We  have  already  offered  our  homage  to  an  early  monarch 
of  France,  for  his  efforts  in  abolishing  the  Trial  by  Battle  and 
in  the  cause  of  Peace.  To  another  monarch  of  France,  in 
our  own  day,  a  descendant  of  St.  Louis,  worthy  of  the  illus 
trious  lineage,  Louis  Philippe,  belongs  the  honest  fame  of 
first  publishing  from  the  thronet  the  truth,  that  Peace  was 
endangered  by  preparations  for  War.  "  The  sentiment,  or 
rather  the  principle,"  he  says,  "that  in  peace  you  must 
prepare  for  war,  is  one  of  difficulty  and  danger  ;  for  while 
we  keep  armies  on  land  to  preserve  peace,  they  are,  at  the 
same  time,  incentives  and  instruments  of  war.  He  rejoiced 
in  all  efforts  to  preserve  peace,  for  that  was  what  all  need. 
He  thought  the  time  was  coming  when  we  shall  get  rid 
entirely  of  war  in  all  civilized  countries/'  This  time  has 
been  hailed  by  a  generous  voice  from  the  army  itself,  by  a 
Marshal  of  France,  who  gave  as  a  toast  at  a  public  dinner  in 
Paris,J  the  following  words  of  salutation  to  a  new  and 
approaching  era  of  happiness  :  "  To  the  pacific  union  of  the 
great  human  family,  by  the  association  of  individuals,  nations 
and  races !  to  the  annihilation  of  war  !  To  the  transforma 
tion  of  destructive  armies  into  corps  of  industrious  laborers, 

*  The  two  volumes  of  colored  plates  from  the  illuminations  of  Froissart,  which 
have  been  recently  published,  will  give  an  accurate  idea  of  the  system  of  de 
fences  within  which  private  individuals  sheltered  themselves.  For  other  illustra 
tions,  see  Appendix,  Note  G. 

t  In  reply  to  an  address  by  the  deputation  from  the  London  Peace  Convention, 
in  1843. 

|  Marshal  Bugeaud,  Governor  of  Algiers,  gave  this  toast  April  7,  1840,  at  one 
of  several  public  dinners  at  that  time,  to  commemorate  the  character  and  services 
of  Fourier.  How  unlike  this  humane  and  noble  sentiment  of  the  Marshal  of 
France,  are  the  braggart  standing  toasts  at  the  celebrations  of  our  National  Anni 
versary,  vaunting  in  swelling  phrase,  the  glories  of  the  P rmy,  the  navy,  and  the 
militia,  while  the  great  interests  of  civilization,  the  administration  of  justice, 
education,  humanity,  are  neglected,  or  only  introduced,  like  sour  olives  and  mouldy 
cheese,  at  the  end  of  the  feast. 


71 

who  will  consecrate  their  lives  to  the  cultivation  and  embel 
lishment  of  the  world  !"  Be  it  our  duty  to  speed  this  con 
summation  ! 

To  William  Penn  belongs  the  distinction,  destined  to 
brighten  as  men  advance  in  virtue,  of  first,  in  human  history, 
establishing  the  Law  of  Love  as  a  rule  of  conduct  for  the 
intercourse  of  nations.  While  he  recognized  as  a  great  end 
of  government,  "  to  support  power  in  reverence  with  the 
people,  and  to  secure  the  people  from  abuse  of  power,"*  he 
declined  the  superfluous  protection  of  arms  against  foreign 
force,  and  "aimed  to  reduce  the  savage  nations  by  just  and 
gentle  manners  to  the  love  of  civil  society  and  the  Christian 
religion."  His  serene  countenance,  as  he  stands  with  his 
followers  in  what  he  called  the  sweet  and  clear  air  of  Penn 
sylvania,  all  unarmed,  beneath  the  spreading  elm,  forming 
the  great  treaty  of  friendship  with  the  untutored  Indians, — 
who  fill  with  savage  display  the  surrounding  forest  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  reach, — not  to  wrest  their  lands  by  violence,  but 
to  obtain  them  by  peaceful  purchase,  is  to  my  mind,  the 
proudest  picture  in  the  history  of  our  country.  "  The  great 
God,"  said  this  illustrious  Quaker,  in  his  words  of  sincerity 
and  truth,  addressed  to  the  Sachems,  "  has  written  his  law 
in  our  hearts,  by  which  we  are  taught  and  commanded  to 
love,  and  to  help,  and  to  do  good  to  one  another.  It  is  not 
our  custom  to  use  hostile  weapons  against  our  fellow  crea 
tures,  for  which  reason  we  -have  come  unarmed.  Our  object 
is  not  to  do  injury,  but  to  do  good.  We  have  met,  then,  in 
the  broad  pathway  of  good  faith  and  good  will,  so  that  no  ad 
vantage  can  be  taken  on  either  side,  but  all  is  to  be  openness, 
brotherhood  and  love ;  while  all  are  to  be  treated  as  of  the 
same  flesh  and  blood."t  These  are,  indeed,  words  of  true 
greatness.  "  Without  any  carnal  weapons,"  says  one  of  his 
companions,  "  we  entered  the  land,  and  inhabited  therein  as 
safe  as  if  there  had  been  thousands  of  garrisons."  "  This 
little  State,"  says  Oldmixon,  "  subsisted  in  the  midst  of  six 
Indian  nations,  without  so  much  as  a  militia  for  its  defence." 
A  great  man,  worthy  of  the  mantle  of  Perm,  the  venerable 
philanthropist,  Clarkson,  in  his  life  of  the  founder  of  Penn 
sylvania,  says,  "  The  Pennsylvanians  became  armed,  though 
without  arms  ;  they  became  strong,  though  without  strength ; 
they  became  safe,  without  the  ordinary  means  of  safety.  The 
constable's  staff  was  the  only  instrument  of  authority  amongst 

*  Preface  to  Perm's  Constitution.  t  Clarkson's  Life  of  Penn,  I.  cap.  18. 


12 

them  for  the  greater  part  of  a  century,  and  never,  during  the 
administration  of  Penn,  or  that  of  his  proper  successors,  was 
there  a  quarrel  or  a  war."* 

Greater  than  the  divinity  that  doth  hedge  a  king,  is  the 
divinity  that  encompasses  the  righteous  man,  and  the  right 
eous  people.  The  flowers  of  prosperity  smiled  in  the  blessed 
footprints  of  William  Penn.  His  people  were  unmolested 
and  happy,  while  (sad,  but  true  contrast !)  those  of  other 
colonies,  acting  upon  the  policy  of  the  world,  building  forts, 
and  showing  themselves  in  arms,  not  after  receiving  provoca 
tion,  but  merely  in  the  anticipation,  or  from  the  fear,  of  insults 
or  danger,  were  harassed  by  perpetual  alarms,  and  pierced 
by  the  sharp  arrows  of  savage  war.t 

This  pattern  of  a  Christian  Commonwealth  never  fails  to 
arrest  the  admiration  of  all  who  contemplate  its  beauties.  It 
drew  an  epigram  of  eulogy  from  the  caustic  pen  of  Voltaire, 
and  has  been  fondly  painted  by  many  virtuous  historians. 
Every  ingenuous  soul  in  our  day  offers  his  willing  tribute  to 
those  celestial  graces  of  justice  and  humanity,  by  the  side  of 
which  the  flinty  hardness  of  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  Rock 
seems  earthly  and  coarse. 

But  let  us  not  confine  ourselves  to  barren  words  in  recog 
nition  of  virtue.  While  we  see  the  right,  and  approve  it,  too, 
let  us  dare  to  pursue  it.  Let  us  now,  in  this  age  of  civiliza 
tion,  surrounded  by  Christian  nations,  be  willing  to  follow 
the  successful  example  of  Williajn  Penn,  surrounded  by 
savages.  Let  us,  while  we  recognize  those  transcendent 
ordinances  of  God,  the  Law  of  Right  and  the  Law  of  Love, 
— the  double  suns  which  illumine  the  moral  universe, — 
aspire  to  the  true  glory,  and  what  is  higher  than  glory,  the 
great  good,  of  taking  the  lead  in  the  disarming  of  the  nations. 
Let  us  abandon  the  system  of  preparation  for  war  in  time  of 
peace,  as  irrational,  unchristian,  vainly  prodigal  of  expense, 
and  having  a  direct  tendency  to  excite  the  very  evil  against 
which  it  professes  to  guard.  Let  the  enormous  means  thus 
released  from  iron  hands,  be  devoted  to  labors  of  beneficence. 
Our  battlements  shall  be  schools,  hospitals,  colleges  and 
churches ;  our  arsenals  shall  be  libraries  ;  our  navy  shall  be 
peaceful  ships,  on  errands  of  perpetual  commerce ;  our  army 
shall  be  the  teachers  of  youth,  and  the  ministers  of  religion. 
This  is  indeed,  the  cheap  defence  of  nations.  In  such  en- 

*  Life  of  Penn,  II.  cap.  23. 

t  Ample  illustrations  of  this  striking  difference  between  the  fate  of  the  colony 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  its  sister  colonies,  may  be  found  in  Clarkson,  II.  cap.  22. 


73 

trenchments  what  Christian  soul  can  be  touched  with  fear. 
Angels  of  the  Lord  shall  throw  over  the  land  an  invisible,  but 
impenetrable  panoply ; 

Or  if  virtue  feeble  were 

Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her.* 

At  the  thought  of  such  a  change  in  policy,  the  imagina 
tion  loses  itself  in  the  vain  effort  to  follow  the  various  streams 
of  happiness,  which  gush  forth  as  from  a  thousand  hills. 
Then  shall  the  naked  be  clothed  and  the  hungry  fed.  Insti 
tutions  of  science  and  learning  shall  crown  every  hill-top  ; 
hospitals  for  the  sick,  and  other  retreats  for  the  unfortunate 
children  of  the  world,  for  all  who  suffer  in  any  way,  in  mind, 
body  or  estate,  shall  nestle  in  every  valley ;  while  the  spires 
of  new  churches  shall  leap  exulting  to  the  skies.  The  whole 
land  shall  bear  witness  to  the  change  ;  art  shall  confess  it  in 
the  new  inspiration  of  the  canvass  and  the  marble  ;  the  harp 
of  the  poet  shall  proclaim  it  in  a  loftier  rhyme.  Above  all, 
the  heart  of  man  shall  bear  witness  to  it,  in  the  elevation  of 
his  sentiments,  in  the  expansion  of  his  affections,  in  his  devo 
tion  to  the  highest  truth,  in  his  appreciation  of  true  greatness. 
The  eagle  of  our  country,  without  the  terror  of  his  beak,  and 
dropping  the  forceful  thunderbolt  from  his  pounces,  shall  soar 
with  the  olive  of  Peace,  into  untried  realms  of  ether,  nearer 
to  the  sun. 


And  here  let  us  review  the  field  over  which  we  have 
passed.  We  have  beheld  war,  a  mode  of  determining  justice 
between  nations,  having  its  origin  in  an  appeal,  not  to  the 
moral  and  intellectual  part  of  man's  nature,  distinguishing  him 
from  the  beasts,  but  to  that  low  part  of  his  nature,  which  he 

*  These  are  the  concluding  words  of  that  most  exquisite  creation  of  early 
genius  the  Comus.  I  have  seen  them  in  Milton's  own  hand-writing,  inscribed  by 
himself,  during  his  travels  in  Italy,  as  a  motto,  in  an  Album ;  thus  showing  that 
they  were  regarded  by  him  as  expressing  an  important  moral  truth.  The  truth, 
which  is  thus  embalmed  by  the  grandest  poet  of  modern  times,  is  also  illustrated, 
in  familiar  words,  by  the  most  graceful  poet  of  antiquity. 

Integer  vita?  scelerisque  purus, 
Non  eget  Mauri  jaculis,  neque  arcu, 
Nee  venenatis  gravida  sagittia, 

Fusee,  pharetra. 

Dryden  pictures  the  same  idea  in  some  of  his  most  magical  lines ; 
A  milk-white  hind,  immortal  and  unchanged, 
Fed  on  the  lawns,  and  in  the  forest  ranged, 
Without  unspotted,  innocent  within, 
She  feared  n'o  danger,  for  she  knew  no  sin. 


74 

has  in  common  with  the  beasts ;  we  have  contemplated  its 
infinite  miseries  to  the  human  race ;  we  have  weighed  its 
sufficiency  as  a  mode  of  determining  justice  between  nations, 
and  found  that  it  is  a  rude  appeal  to  force  or  a  gigantic  game 
of  chance,  in  which  God's  children  are  profanely  dealt  with 
as  a  pack  of  cards,  while  in  its  unnatural  and  irrational  wick 
edness,  it  is  justly  to  be  likened  to  the  monstrous  and  impious 
usage  of  Trial  by  Battle  which  disgraced  the  dark  ages,  thus 
showing  that,  in  this  age  of  boasted  civilization,  justice  be 
tween  nations  is  determined  by  the  same  rules  of  barbarous 
brutal  force  which  once  controlled  the  relations  between  indi 
viduals.  We  have  next  considered  the  various  prejudices  by 
which  War  is  sustained ;  founded  on  a  false  belief  in  its 
necessity;  on  the  practice  of  nations  past  and  present;  on 
the  infidelity  of  the  Christian  Church;  on  a  false  idea  of 
honor ;  on  an  exaggerated  idea  of  the  duties  of  patriotism  ; 
and  lastly  that  monster  prejudice,  which  draws  its  vampire 
life  from  the  vast  preparations  in  time  of  peace  for  war; 
dwelling  at  the  last  stage  upon  the  thriftless,  irrational  and 
unchristian  character  of  these  preparations,  and  catching  a 
vision  of  the  exalted  good  that  will  be  achieved  when  our 
country,  learning  wisdom,  shall  aim  at  the  true  grandeur 
of  Peace. 

And  now,  if  it  be  asked  why,  on  this  National  Anniversary, 
in  the  consideration  of  the  TRUE  GRANDEUR  OF  NATIONS,  I 
have  thus  dwelt  singly  and  exclusively  on  war,  it  is,  because 
war  is  utterly  and  irreconcilably  inconsistent  with  true  great 
ness.  Thus  far  mankind  has  worshipped,  in  military  glory, 
an  idol,  compared  with  which  the  colossal  images  of  ancient 
Babylon  or  modern  Hindostan  are  but  toys ;  and  we,  in  this 
blessed  day  of  light,  in  this  blessed  land  of  freedom,  are  among 
the  idolaters.  The  Heaven-descended  injunction,  know 
thyself,  still  speaks  to  an  ignorant  world  from  the  distant 
letters  of  gold  at  Delphi ;  know  thyself;  know  that  the  moral 
nature  is  the  most  noble  part  of  man ;  transcending  far  that 
part  which  is  the  seat  of  passion,  strife  and  war ;  nobler  than 
the  intellect  itself.  Suppose  war  to  be  decided  by  force, 
where  is  the  glory?  Suppose  it  to  be  decided  by  chance, 
where  is  the  glory  ?  No  ;  true  greatness  consists  in  imitating 
as  near  as  is  possible  for  finite  man,  the  perfections  of  an 
Infinite  Creator ;  above  all,  in  cultivating  those  highest  per 
fections,  Justice  and  Love ;  Justice,  which  like  that  of  St. 
Louis,  shall  not  swerve  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left ;  Love, 
which  like  that  of  William  Penn,  shall  regard  all  mankind  of 


75 

kin.  "  God  is  angry,"  says  Plato,  "  when  any  one  censures 
a  man  like  himself,  or  praises  a  man  of  an  opposite  cha 
racter.  And  the  God-like  man  is  the  good  man,"*  And 
again,  in  another  of  those  lovely  dialogues,  vocal  with  im 
mortal  truth,  "  Nothing  resembles  God  more  than  that  man 
among  us  who  has  arrived  at  the  highest  degree  of  justice/5! 
The  true  greatness  of  nations  is  in  those  qualities  which  con 
stitute  the  greatness  of  the  individual.  It  is  not  to  be  found 
in  extent  of  territory,  nor  in  vastness  of  population,  nor  in 
wealth;  not  in  fortifications,  or  armies,  or  navies;  not  in  the 
phosphorescent  glare  of  fields  of  battle ;  not  in  Golgothas, 
though  covered  by  monuments  that  kiss  the  clouds ;  for  all 
these  are  the  creatures  and  representatives  of  those  quali 
ties  of  our  nature,  which  are  unlike  any  thing  in  God's 
nature. 

Nor  is  the  greatness  of  nations  to  be  found  in  triumphs  of 
the  intellect  alone,  in  literature,  learning,  science  or  art.  The 
.polished  Greeks,  the  world's  masters  in  the  delights  of  lan 
guage,  and  in  range  of  thought,  and  the  commanding  Romans, 
overawing  the  earth  with  their  power,  were  little  more  than 
splendid  savages ;  and  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.  of  France, 
spanning  so  long  a  period  of  ordinary  worldly  magnificence, 
thronged  by  marshals  bending  under  military  laurels,  en 
livened  by  the  unsurpassed  comedy  of  Moliere,  dignified  by 
the  tragic  genius  of  Corneille,  illumined  by  the  splendors  of 
Bossuet,  is  degraded  by  immoralities  that  cannot  be  men 
tioned  without  a  blush,  by  a  heartlessness  in  comparison  with 
which  the  ice  of  Nova  Zembla  is  warm,  and  by  a  succession 
of  deeds  of  injustice  not  to  be  washed  out  by  the  tears  of  all 
the  recording  angels  of  Heaven. ij: 

The  true  greatness  of  a  nation  cannot  be  in  triumphs  of 
the  intellect  alone.  Literature  and  art  may  widen  the  sphere 
of  its  influence;  they  may  adorn  it;  but  they  are  in  their 
nature  but  accessaries.  The  true  grandeur  of  humanity  is 


*  Minos,  $  12.  t  Theaetetus,  §  87. 

t  The  false  glory  of  Louis  XIV.  which  procured  for  him,  from  flattering  cour 
tiers  and  a  barbarous  world,  the  title  of  Great,  was  questioned  by  one  of  his  own 
subjects,  the  good  Abbe  de  Saint  Pierre.  To  this  early  Apostle  of  Humanity  and 
Peace,  the  author  of  the  Projet  de  paix  perpetuelle,  the  advocate  of  good  will  to 
man,  the  world,  as  it  wakes  from  its  martial  trance,  shall  offer  large  tributes  of 
admiration  and  gratitude.  His  voice  was  that  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness ; 
but  it  was  the  herald  of  the  reign  of  Peace.  He  enriched  the  French  language 
with  the  word  bienfaisance  ;  and  D'Alembert  said  that  it  was  right  that  he  should 
have  invented  the  word,  who  practised  so  largely  the  virtue  which  it  expressed. 
The  good  Abbe  is  not  to  be  confounded  with  the  eccentric  and  eloquent  Bernardin 
de  Saint  Pierre,  the  author  of  Paul  and  Virginia. 


76 

in  moral  elevation,  sustained,  enlightened  and  decorated  by 
the  intellect  of  man.  The  truest  tokens  of  this  grandeur  in  a 
State  are  the  diffusion  of  the  greatest  happiness  among  the 
greatest  number,  and  that  passionless  God-like  Justice,  which 
controls  the  relations  of  the  State  to  other  States,  and  to  all 
the  people,  who  are  committed  to  its  charge. 

But  war  crushes  with  bloody  heel  all  justice,  all  happiness, 
all  that  is  God-like  in  man.    "  It  is,"  says  the  eloquent  Robert 
Hall,  "the  temporary  repeal  of  all  the  principles  of  virtue." 
True,  it  cannot  be  disguised,  that  there  are  passages  in  its 
dreary  annals  cheered  by  deeds  of  generosity  and  sacrifice. 
But  the  virtues  which  shed  their  charm  over  its  horrors  are 
all  borrowed  of  Peace ;  they  are  emanations  of  the  spirit  of 
love,  which  is  so  strong  in  the  heart  of  man,  that  it  survives 
the  rudest  assaults.     The  flowers  of  gentleness,  of  kindliness, 
of  fidelity,  of  humanity,  which  flourish  in  unregarded  luxu 
riance  in  the  rich  meadows  of  Peace,  receive  unwonted  ad 
miration  when  we  discern  them  in  war,  like  violets  shedding 
their  perfume  on  the  perilous  edges  of  the  precipice,  beyond 
the  smiling  borders  of  civilization.     God  be  praised  for  all  the 
examples  of  magnanimous  virtue  which  he  has  vouchsafed  to 
mankind  !     God  be  praised  that  the  Roman  Emperor,  about 
to   start  on   a  distant  expedition  of  war,  encompassed  by 
squadrons  of  cavalry  and  by  golden  eagles  which  moved  in 
the  winds,  stooped  from  his  saddle  to  listen  to  the  prayer  of 
the  humble  widow,  demanding  justice  for  the  death  of  her 
son  !*     God  be  praised  that  Sydney,  on  the  field  of  battle, 
gave  with  dying  hand  the  cup  of  cold  water  to  the  dying 
soldier !     That  single  act  of  self-forgetful  sacrifice  has  conse 
crated  the  fenny  field  of  Zutphen,  far,  oh!  far  beyond  its 
battle;  it  has  consecrated  thy  name,  gallant  Sydney,  beyond 
any  feat  of  thy  sword,  beyond  any  triumph  of  thy  pen.    But 
there  are  hands  outstretched  elsewhere  than  on  fields  of  blood, 
for  so  little  as  a  cup  of  cold  water ;  the  world  is  full  of  oppor 
tunities  for  deeds  of  kindness.     Let  me  not  be  told,  then,  of 
the  virtues  of  War.     Let  not  the  acts  of  generosity  and 
sacrifice,  which  have  triumphed  on  its  fields,  be  invoked  in 
its  defence.     In  the  words  of  Oriental  imagery,  the  poisonous 
tree,  though  watered  by  nectar,  can  produce  only  the  fruit  of 
death ! 

«3|*  This  most  admired  instance  of  justice,  according  to  the  legends  of  the  Catho 
lic  Church,  opened  to  Trajan,  although  a  heathen,  the  gates  of  salvation.  Dante 
found  the  scene  and  the  visible  parlare  of  the  widow  and  Emperor  storied  on  the 
walls  of  Purgatory,  and  he  has  transmitted  them  in  a  passage  which  commends 
itself  hardly  less  than  any  in  the  Divine  Poem.  Purgatorio,  Canto  X. 


77 

As  we  cast  our  eyes  over  the  history  of  nations  we  discern 
with  horror  the  succession  of  murderous  slaughters  by  which 
their  progress  has  been  marked.  As  the  hunter  traces  the 
wild  beast,  when  pursued  to  his  lair  by  the  drops  of  blood  on 
the  earth,  so  we  follow  Man,  faint,  weary,  staggering  with 
wounds,  through  the  Black  Forest  of  the  Past,  which  he  has 
reddened  with  his  gore.  Oh  !  let  it  not  be  in  the  future  ages 
as  in  those  which  we  now  contemplate.  Let  the  grandeur 
of  man  be  discerned  in  the  blessings  which  he  has  secured; 
in  the  good  he  has  accomplished  ;  in  the  triumphs  of  benevo 
lence  and  justice;  in  the  establishment  of  perpetual  peace.* 

As  the  ocean  washes  every  shore,  and  clasps,  with  all-em 
bracing  arms,  every  land,  while  it  bears  on  its  heaving  bosom 
the  products  of  various  climes ;  so  Peace  surrounds,  protects 
and  upholds  all  other  blessings.  Without  it  commerce  is 
vain,  the  ardor  of  industry  is  restrained,  happiness  is  blasted, 
virtue  sickens  and  dies. 

And  Peace  has  its  own  peculiar  victories,  in  comparison 
with  which  Marathon  and  Bannockburn  and  Bunker  Hill, 
fields  held  sacred  in  the  history  of  human  freedom,  shall  lose 
their  lustre.  Our  own  Washington  rises  to  a  truly  Heavenly 
stature, — not  when  we  follow  him  over  the  ice  of  the  Dela 
ware  to  the  capture  of  Trenton,— not  when  we  behold  him 
victorious  over  Cornwallis  at  Yorktown;  but  when  we  regard 
him,  in  noble  deference  to  justice,  refusing  the  kingly  crown 
which  a  faithless  soldiery  proffered,  and  at  a  later  day,  up 
holding  the  peaceful  neutrality  of  the  country,  while  he  re 
ceived  unmoved  the  clamor  of  the  people  wickedly  crying 
for  war.  What  glory  of  battle  in  England's  annals  will  not 
fade  by  the  side  of  that  great  act  of  Justice,  by  which  her 
Legislature,  at  a  cost  of  one  hundred  million  dollars,  gave 
freedom  to  eight  hundred  thousand  slaves!  And  when  the 
day  shall  come,  (may  these  eyes  be  gladdened  by  its  beams  !) 
that  shall  witness  an  act  of  greater  justice  still,  the  peaceful 
emancipation  of  three  millions  of  our  fellow-men,  "guilty  of 
a  skin  not  colored  as  our  own,"  now  held  in  gloomy  bondage, 

*  Man  alone  of  the  animal  creation  preys  upon  his  own  species !  The  kingly 
lion  does  not  prey  upon  his  brother  lion  ;  the  ferocious  tiger  does  not  prey  upon 
Kindred  tigers. 

Sedjam  serpentum  major  concordia  ;  parcit 
Cognatis  maculis  similis  fera.    Quando  leoni 
Fortior  eripuit  vitam  leo  ?  quo  nemore  unquam 
Exspiravit  aper  majoris  dentibus  apri  ? 
Indica  tigris  agit  rabida  cum  tigride  pacem 
r  Perpetuam. 

Juvenal,  Sat.  XV.  159. 


78 

under  the  constitution  of  our  country,  then  shall  there  be  a 
victory,  in  comparison  with  which  that  of  Bunker  Hill  shall 
be  as  a  farthing-candle  held  up  to  the  sun.  That  victory 
shall  need  no  monument  of  stone.  It  shall  be  written  on  the 
grateful  hearts  of  uncounted  multitudes,  that  shall  proclaim 
it  to  the  latest  generation.  It  shall  be  one  of  the  great  land 
marks  of  civilization ;  nay  more,  it  shall  be  one  of  the  links 
in  the  golden  chain  by  which  Humanity  shall  connect  itself 
with  the  throne  of  God. 

As  the  cedars  of  Lebanon  are  higher  than  the  grass  of  the 
valley ;  as  the  heavens  are  higher  than  the  earth  ;  as  man  is 
higher  than  the  beasts  of  the  field ;  as  the  angels  are  higher 
than  man ;  as  he  that  ruleth  his  spirit  is  higher  than  he  that 
taketh  a  city  ;  so  are  the  virtues  and  victories  of  Peace  higher 
than  the  virtues  and  victories  of  War. 

Far  be  from  us,  fellow-citizens,  on  this  Anniversary,  the 
illusions  of  National  freedom  in  which  we  are  too  prone  to 
indulge.  We  have  but  half  done,  when  we  have  made  our 
selves  free.  Let  not  the  scornful  taunt  be  directed  at  us ; 
"They  wish  to  be  free ;  but  know  not  how  to  be  just"* 
Freedom  is  not  an  end  in  itself;  but  a  means  only;  a  means 
of  securing  Justice  and  Happiness,  the  real  end  and  aim  of 
States,  as  of  every  human  heart.  It  becomes  us  to  inquire 
earnestly  if  there  is  not  much  to  be  done  by  which  these  can 
be  promoted.  If  I  have  succeeded  in  impressing  on  your 
minds  the  truths,  which  I  have  upheld  to-day,  you  will  be 
ready  to  join  in  efforts  for  the  Abolition  of  War,  and  of  all 
preparation  for  War,  as  indispensable  to  the  true  grandeur  of 
our  country. 

To  this  great  work  let  me  summon  you.  That  Future 
which  filled  the  lofty  visions  of  the  sages  and  bards  of  Greece 
and  Rome,  which  was  foretold  by  the  prophets  and  heralded 
by  the  evangelists,  when  man  in  Happy  Isles,  or  in  a  new 
Paradise,  shall  confess  the  loveliness  of  Peace,  may  be  se 
cured  by  your  care,  if  not  for  yourselves,  at  least  for  your 
children.  Believe  that  you  can  do  it,  and  you  can  do  it. 
The  true  golden  age  is  before  you,  not  behind  you.  If  man 
has  been  driven  once  from  Paradise,  while  an  angel  with  a 
flaming  sword  forbade  his  return,  there  is  another  Paradise, 
even  on  earth,  which  he  may  form  for  himself,  by  the  culti 
vation  of  the  kindly  virtues  of  life,  where  the  confusion  of 
tongues  shall  be  dissolved  in  the  union  of  hearts,  where  there 

*  l\a  veulent  etre  libres  et  ne  savent  pas  etre  justes. — Abbe  Sieyes. 


79 

shall  be  a  perpetual  jocund  spring,  and  sweet  strains  borne 
on  "  the  odoriferous  wings  of  gentle  gales,"  more  pleasant 
than  the  Vale  of  Tempe,  richer  than  the  garden  of  the  Hes- 
perides,  with  no  dragon  to  guard  its  golden  fruit. 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  the  age  does  not  demand  this  work. 
The  mighty  conquerors  of  the  Past,  from  their  fiery  sepul 
chres,  demand  it;  the  blood  of  millions  unjustly  shed  in  war 
crying  from  the  ground  demands  it ;  the  voices  of  all  good 
men  demand  it ;  the  conscience  even  of  the  soldier  whispers 
"Peace."  There  are  considerations,  springing  from  our 
situation  and  condition,  which  fervently  invite  us  to  take  the 
lead  in  this  great  work.  To  this  should  bend  the  patriotic 
ardor  of  the  land ;  the  ambition  of  the  statesman :  the  efforts 
of  the  scholar ;  the  pervasive  influence  of  the  press ;  the 
mild  persuasion  of  the  sanctuary;  the  early  teachings  of  the 
school.  Here,  in  ampler  ether  and  diviner  air,  are  untried 
fields  for  exalted  triumphs,  more  truly  worthy  the  American 
name,  than  any  snatched  from  rivers  of  blood.  War  is 
known  as  the  Last  Reason  of  Kings.  Let  it  be  no  reason 
of  our  Republic.  Let  us  renounce  and  throw  off  for  ever 
the  yoke  of  a  tyranny  more  oppressive  than  any  in  the  annals 
of  the  world.  As  those  standing  on  the  mountain-tops  first 
discern  the  coming  beams  of  morning,  let  us,  from  the  van 
tage-ground  of  liberal  institutions,  first  recognize  the  ascend 
ing  sun  of  a  new  era !  Lift  high  the  gates,  and  let  the 
King  of  Glory  in — the  King  of  true  Glory— of  Peace.  I 
catch  the  last  words  of  music  from  the  lips  of  innocence  and 
beauty  ;* 

And  let  the  whole  earth  be  filled  with  his  glory ! 

It  is  a  beautiful  picture  in  Grecian  story,  that  there  was  at 
least  one  spot,  the  small  Island  of  Delos,  dedicated  to  the 
Gods,  and  kept  at  all  times  sacred  from  war,  where  the  citi 
zens  of  hostile  countries  met  and  united  in  a  common  wor 
ship.  So  let  us  dedicate  our  broad  country  !  The  Temple 
of  Honor  shall  be  surrounded  by  the  Temple  of  Concord,  so 
that  the  former  can  be  entered  only  through  the  portals  of 
the  latter ;  the  horn  of  Abundance  shall  overflow  at  its  gates ; 
the  angel  of  Religion  shall  be  the  guide  over  its  steps  of 
flashing  adamant ;  while  within  JUSTICE,  returned  to  the 
earth  from  her  long  exile  in  the  skies,  shall  rear  her  serene 
and  majestic  front.  And  the  future  chiefs  of  the  Republic, 

*  The  services  of  the  choir  at  the  Church,  where  the  Oration  was  delivered, 
were  performed  by  the  youthful  daughters  of  the  public  schools  of  Boston. 


80 

destined  to  uphold  the  glories  of  a  new  era,  unspotted  by 
human  blood,  shall  be  "  the  first  in  PEACE,  and  the  first  in 
the  hearts  of  their  countrymen." 

But  while  we  seek  these  blissful  glories  for  ourselves,  let 
us  strive  to  extend  them  to  other  lands.  Let  the  bugles 
sound  the  Truce  of  God  to  the  whole  world  for  ever.  Let 
the  selfish  boast  of  the  Spartan  women  become  the  grand 
chorus  of  mankind,  that  they  have  never  seen  the  smoke  of 
an  enemy's  camp.  Let  the  iron  belt  of  martial  music  which 
now  encompasses  the  earth,  be  exchanged  for  the  golden 
cestus  of  Peace,  clothing  all  with  celestial  beauty.  History 
dwells  with  fondness  on  the  reverent  homage,  that  was  be 
stowed,  by  massacreing  soldiers,  on  the  spot  occupied  by  the 
Sepulchre  of  the  Lord.  Vain  man  !  to  restrain  his  regard  to 
a  few  feet  of  sacred  mould  !  The  whole  earth  is  the  Sepul 
chre  of  the  Lord  ;  nor  can  any  righteous  man  profane  any 
part  thereof.  Let  us  recognize  this  truth;  and  now,  on  this 
Sabbath  of  our  country,  lay  a  new  stone  in  the  grand  Temple 
of  Universal  Peace,  whose  dome  shall  be  as  lofty  as  the 
firmament  of  Heaven,  as  broad  and  comprehensive  as  the 
earth  itself. 


APPENDIX 


NOTE     A. 

[Referred  to  on  page  8.] 

THE  following  letter  has  been  published  at  the  suggestion  of  several  friends,  as 
illustrating  a  topic  considered  in  the  text. 

JULY  6th,  1845. 
MY  DEAR , 

It  has  occurred  to  me  that  you  might  have  thought  me  wanting  in  frankness, 
when  I  avoided  expressing  a  positive  opinion  with  regard  to  the  righteousness  of 
the  resistance  of  our  Fathers  to  taxation  by  the  British  Parliament.  I  am  very 
desirous,  on  many  accounts,  of  not  disturbing  that  question ;  "  Let  the  Dead  Past 
bury  its  Dead."  I  wish  to  confine  myself  to  the  Present  and  the  Future. 

There  is  one  conclusion,  following  with  irresistible  force,  from  the  assumptioa 
that  our  Fathers  were  justifiable  in  their  course,  which  neither  of  us  would  wish 
to  have  promulgated.  It  relates  to  the  present  condition  of  our  slaves.  At  the 
time  of  the  Stamp  Act  and  Tea  Tax,  the  population  of  the  Colonies  amounted  to 
about  two  millions  (according  to  Mr.  Burke,  though  our  writers  have  called  it 
three);  their  grievance,  their  slavery,  was  the  necessity  of  paying  a  few  pence, 
more  or  less  on  certain  things,  under  the  direction  of  a  Parliament  in  which  they 
were  not  represented.  No  just  or  humane  person  can  fail  to  perceive  that  all  this 
was  as  a  feather  compared  with  the  rod  of  oppression,  now  held  by  our  country 
over  more  than  three  millions  of  fellow-men.  If  two  millions  were  justified  in  re 
sisting  by  force  the  assumptions  of  the  British  Parliament,  as  contrary  to  the*  lavr 
of  nature,  the  principles  of  the  common  law,  and  the  rights  of  Freedom;  then,  a 
fortiori,  the  three  millions  of  blacks,  into  whose  souls  we  thrust  the  iron  of  the 
deadliest  slavery  the  world  has  yet  witnessed,  would  be  justified  in  resisting  by 
force  the  power  that  holds  them  in  bondage.  Can  we  proclaim  such  a  truth  ? 

To  me,  the  more  humane,  the  more  Christian,  the  more  expedient  course,  seems 
to  be  to  leave  that  great  question  undisturbed  in  the  coffins  of  our  Fathers.  There 
are  minor  rules  of  propriety,  not  to  say  of  politeness  and  good  breeding,  that  seem 
to  indicate  the  same  conclusion.  The  customary  tone  of  reference  to  the  war  of 
the  Revolution  is  in  a  spirit  which  would  be  considered  indelicate  with  regard  to 
any  private  or  personal  experience;  and  it  seems  to  me  well  worthy  of  considera 
tion,  whether  the  time  has  not  come  for  nations  to  put  aside  their  habits  of  boast 
ing,  as  indecorous,  if  not  unchristian.  The  propriety  of  this  course  must  com 
mend  itself,  not  only  to  those  who  may  regard  the  conduct  of  the  Fathers  of  the 
Revolution  as  questionable,  but  even  to  those  who  think  it  entirely  justifiable. 

6 


82 

Even  if  the  great  trial  by  battle  be  regarded  as  a  rational  mode  of  determining 
justice  between  nations ;  should  not  the  place  of  encounter  be  held  rather  as  a 
iield  of  execution  than  of  triumph  ?  We  do  not  erect  monuments  to  commemo 
rate  the  scenes  of  public  executions.  *  *  *  * 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

CHARLES  SUMNER. 


NOTE    B. 

[Referred  to  on  page  23.] 

IN  this  note  I  propose  to  present  a  sketch  of  the  history  of  Private  Wars  and 
of  the  Trial  by  Battle.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  the  same  sentiments  which 
lead  us  to  condemn  these  as  impious  and  monstrous,  equally  condemn  wars  be 
tween  nations.  I  cannot  dwell  too  much  upon  the  importance  of  this  parallel ; 
and  I  would  here  repeat  what  is  set  forth  in  the  text,  though  not  with  sufficient 
prominence,  that  all  war  between  civilized  Christian  nations  is  a  mere  TRIAL  OF 
HIGHT,  or  a  mode  of  determining  justice  between  them,  in  this  respect  resembling 
precisely  the  Trial  by  Battle.  It  is  a  mode  of  litigation,  or  of  determining  a  Lis 
Pendens  between  nations.  This,  of  course,  excludes  the  idea  of  self-defence.  The 
supposed  right  of  self-defence  might  arise,  if  a  pirate  should  enter  our  harbors,  for 
the  mere  purpose  of  murder  or  plunder;  but  it  is  irrational  and  vain  to  suppose 
that  there  is  any  element  of  self-defence  in  a  war  to  determine  a  dispute  or  litiga 
tion  between  nations.  I  hope  to  brand  the  phrase  defensive  wars  as  absurd,  and 
expressing  in  our  age,  and  among  Christian  nations,  an  impossible  idea.  It  is  a 
part  of  the  "  flash  language"  of  war  and  diplomacy,  which  should  be  now  exploded. 
I  repeat,  again,  that  all  war  is  a  mere  Trial  by  Battle  between  nations  ;  and 
as  such,  no  one  can  fail  to  pronounce  it,  in  the  language  of  Montesquieu,  mon 
strous,  and  in  the  language  of  the  old  Lombard  monarch,  impious. 

PRIVATE  WARS.  The  system  of  private  wars  may  be  traced  to  the  dark  woods 
of  Ancient  Germany,  where  the  right  of  avenging  injuries  was  treated  as  a  private 
and  personal  right,  exercised  by  force  of  arms,  without  reference  to  an  umpire,  or 
appeal  to  a  magistrate  for  decision.  Emerging  from  thence,  it  prevailed  in  the 
early  centuries  of  modern  times,  in  all  the  countries  of  Europe,  though  few  traces 
of  it  are  to  be  found  in  England  after  the  Conquest,  except  in  times  of  civil  trou 
ble  and  commotion.  Though  the  avenging  of  injuries  was  the  only  motive  that 
could  legally  authorize  private  wars,  yet  they  often  arose  from  disputes  concerning 
civil  property.  They  were  carried  on  with  all  the  destructive  rage  which  is  to  be 
dreaded  from  violent  resentment  when  armed  with  force  and  authorized  by  law. 
The  invasion  of  the  most  barbarous  enemy  was  not  more  desolating  to  a  country 
or  more  grievous  to  its  inhabitants.  Various  ineffectual  efforts  were  made  for  their 
suppression.  A  Bishop  of  Aquitaine,  A.  D.  1032,  pretended  that  an  angel  had 
appeared  to  him,  and  brought  him  a  writing  from  Heaven,  enjoining  men  to  cease 
from  their  hostilities,  and  be  reconciled  to  each  other.  It  was  during  a  season  of 
public  calamity  that  he  published  this  revelation  ;  the  minds  of  men  were  disposed 
to  receive  supernatural  impressions,  and  consented  to  a  general  peace  and  cessation 
of  hostilities,  which  continued  for  seven  years.  A  resolution  was  formed  that  no  man 
should,  in  time  to  come,  attack  or  molest  his  adversaries  during  the  seasons  set  apart 
for  celebrating  the  great  festivities  of  the  church,  or  from  the  evening  of  Thurs 
day  in  each  week  to  the  morning  of  Monday  in  the  week  ensuing,  the  intervening 
days  being  considered  as  particularly  holy,  the  Lord's  Passion  having  happened  on 
one  of  these  days,  and  his  Resurrection  on  another.  A  change  in  the  disposition 
of  men  so  sudden,  and  producing  a  resolution  so  unexpected,  was  considered  as 
miraculous,  and  the  respite  of  hostilities,  which  followed  upon  it,  was  called  The 
Truce  of  God.  This,  from  being  a  regulation  or  concert  in  one  kingdom,  became  a 
general  law  in  Christendom,  and  was  confirmed  by  the  authority  of  the  Pope,  and 
the  violators  of  it  were  subject  to  the  penalty  of  excommunication.  The  custom 
of  private  war  still  continued  ;  but  was  discountenanced  by  St.  Louis,  until  finally 
Charles  VI,  in  1413,  issued  an  ordinance  expressly  prohibiting  it  on  any  pretext 
whatsoever,  with  power  to  the  magistrates  to  compel  all  persons  to  comply  with 
this  injunction,  and  to  punish  such  as  should  prove  refractory  or  disobedient.  Later 


83 

than  this  there  is  an  instance  of  a  pitched  battle  in  the  reign  of  Edward  IV  of 
England,  at  Nibley  Green,  in  Gloucestershire,  on  the  10th  of  August,  1470,  be 
tween  two  powerful  nobles,  William,  Lord  Berkley,  and  Thomas,  Viscount  Lisle. 
Both  brought  a  large  number  of  men  into  the  field;  an  hundred  and  fifty  men  were 
killed  in  the  action.  After  the  battle.  Lord  Berkley  repaired  to  the  Castle  of  Lord 
Lisle,  at  Wotton,  and  it  was  ransomed  as  a  place  taken  in  regular  war.  The  cause 
of  this  feud  was  the  right  of  succession  to  the  lands  of  Berkley.  The  law  suit, 
which  gave  occasion  to  this  battle,  lasted  a  hundred  and  ninety-two  years,  and 
during  its  progress  the  Castle  of  Berkley  was  once  taken  by  surprise,  and  its  inhabi 
tants  thrown  into  prison;  it  was,  besides,  frequently  attacked  and  defended  with 
much  effusion  of  blood.  (Foreign  Quarterly  Review,  No.  G9,  for  April  1845.) 

Let  us  close  this  sketch  in  the  words  of  Robertson,  in  allusion  to  the  regulations 
for  the  abolition  of  private  war:  "  How  slow  is  the  progress  of  reason  and  civil 
order !  Regulations  which  to  us  appear  so  equitable,  obvious  and  simple,  re 
quired  the  efforts  of  civil  and  ecclesiastical  authority,  during  several  centuries,  to 
introduce  and  establish  them."* 

TRIAL  BY  BATTLE.  The  trial  by  battle,  or  the  judicial  combat,  was  a  formal  and 
legitimate  mode  of  determining  disputes.  This,  likewise,  may  be  traced  to  the 
ancient  Germans ;  for  it  appears  by  a  passage  in  Velieius  Paterculus  (L.  II.  c. 
118),  that  all  questions  which  were  decided  among  the  Romans  by  trial,  were  termi 
nated  among  them  by  the  sword;  the  Roman  laws  and  method  of  trial,  which 
Quintilius  Varus  attempted  to  introduce  among  them,  were  regarded  as  noritas 
incognita  discipline,  ut  solita  armis  decerni  jure  terminarentur.  It  afterwards 
extended  to  the  other  countries  of  Europe,  though  it  does  not  seem  to  have  estab 
lished  itself  completely  in  France  till  after  the  time  of  Charlemagne.  It  seems 
to  have  been  popular  in  Lombardy,  though  Luitprand,  King  of  the  Lombards,  in 
one  of  his  laws  in  713,  expressly  admits  its  impiety:  Incerti  sumus  de  judicio  Dei 
et  quosdam  audivimus  per  pugnam  sine  justa  causa  suam  causam  perdere.  Sed 
propter  consuetudinem  gentis  nostren  Longobardorum  legem  impiam  vetare  non  pos- 
sumus.  (Muratori,  Rerum  Italic.  Script,  t.  2.  p.  65.)  Like  the  other  ordeals,  by 
the  burning  ploughshares,  by  the  holding  hot  iron,  by  dipping  the  hand  in  hot 
water,  or  hot  oil,  it  was  a  presumptuous  appeal  to  Providence,  under  an  apprehen 
sion  and  hope  that  Heaven  would  give  the  victory  to  him  who  had  the  right.  It 
was  the  child  of  superstition  and  brute  force. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  trial  by  battle  was  originally  permitted,  in  order  to 
determine  points  respecting  the  personal  character,  or  reputation  of  individuals, 
and  was  afterwards  extended,  not  only  to  criminal  cases,  but  to  questions  con 
cerning  property.  In  the  year  961,  a  controversy  concerning  the  church  of  St. 
Medard,  whether  it  belonged  to  the  Abbey  of  Beaulieu,  was  terminated  by  judicial 
combat.  The  Abbot  Wittikindus  considered  it  as  the  best  and  most  honourable 
mode  of  determining  a  grave  point  of  law.  "  It  was  a  matter  of  doubt  and  dispute," 
says  the  Abbot,  "  whether  the  sons  of  a  son  ought  to  be  reckoned  among  the 
children  of  the  family,  and  succeed  equally  with  their  uncles  if  their  father  hap 
pened  to  die  while  their  grandfather  was  alive.  An  assembly  was  called  to  de 
liberate  on  this  point,  and  it  was  the  general  opinion  that  it  ought  to  be  remitted 
to  the  examination  and  decision  of  judges.  But  the  Emperor,  [Otho  II]  following 
a  better  course,  and  desirous  of  dealing  HONOURABLY  with  his  people  and  nobles, 
appointed  the  matter  to  be  decided  between  two  champions.  He  who  appeared  in 
behalf  of  the  right  of  children  to  represent  their  deceased  father  was  victorious  ; 
and  it  was  established  by  a  perpetual  decree,  that  they  should  hereafter  share  in 
the  inheritance  together  with  their  uncles."  This  was  under  the  German  Emperor, 
Otho  II  in  the  tenth  century.  But  the  folly  of  man  did  not  end  here.  A  question 
of  religion,  as  well  as  of  law,  was  submitted  to  the  same  arbitrament.  In  the 
eleventh  century  the  question  was  agitated  in  Spain,  whether  the  Musarabic  Lit 
urgy  which  had  been  used  in  the  Churches  of  Spain,  or  the  Liturgy  approved  by 
the  See  of  Rome,  differing  in  many  particulars  from  the  other,  contained  the  form 
of  worship  most  acceptable  to  the  Deity.  The  Spaniards  contended  zealously  for 


*  The  subject  of  private  war  is  treated  with  an  exactness,  perspicuity  and  comprehensive 
ness  by  Dr.  Robertson  (Hist,  of  Charles  V.  Vol.  I.  note  21).  whicJi  have  inspired  the  warm 
commendation  of  Mr.  llallam.  (History  of  Middle  Ages,  Vol.  II  —  loo,  cnp.  2.  pt.  2.)  It  also 
occupies  the  attention  of  our  countryman  (Mr.  Wheaton)  in  his  History  of  the  Northmen  : 
and  of  the  humane  and  accomplished  historian  of  France,  Sismondi.  (tlistoire  des  Franoais, 
Tome  VIII.  72-77.) 


84 

the  liturgy  of  their  ancestors.  The  Popes  urged  the  reception  of  that  which  had 
their  infallible  sanction.  The  question  was  referred  to  the  trial  by  battle.  Two 
knights  in  complete  armour  entered  the  lists.  John  Iluys  de  Matanca,  the  cham 
pion  of  the  Musarabic  Liturgy,  was  victorious. 

While  the  trial  by  battle  subsisted,  proofs  by  charter,  contracts  or  persons,  be 
came  ineffectual.  When  a  charter  or  other  instrument  was  introduced  by  one  of 
the  parties,  his  opponent  might  challenge  it,  affirm  that  it  was  false  and  forged,  and 
offer  to  prove  this  by  combat.  So  he  might  accuse  a  witness,  whom  he  suspected 
of  being  about  to  give  testimony  against  him,  of  being  suborned,  give  him  the  lie, 
and  challenge  him  to  combat;  and  if  the  witness  was  vanquished,  no  other  evi 
dence  was  admitted,  and  the  party  by  whom  he  was  summoned  lost  his  cause.  The 
reason  given  for  obliging  a  witness  to  accept  of  defiance,  and  to  defend  himself  by 
combat,  contains  the  idea  of  what  is  called  the  point  of  honour  ;  "  for  it  is  just,  that 
if  any  one  affirms  that  he  perfectly  knows  the  truth  of  anything,  and  offers  to  give 
oath  upon  it,  that  he  should  not  hesitate  to  maintain  the  veracity  of  his  affirmation 
in  combat."  Leg.  Burgund.  tit.  45. 

The  trial  by  battle  extended  itself  so  generally  in  France,  if  not  in  other  parts 
of  Europe,  as  at  one  time  to  supersede  all  other  ordeals,  which  were  regarded  also 
as  judgments  of  God,  and  even  the  mode  by  proofs.  In  Orleans  it  was  restrained 
to  civil  matters,  involving  upwards  of  six  sous  in  amount.  [Montesquieu.  Esp,  des 
Lois,  Liv.  28,  cap.  20.]  Regulations  of  great  minuteness  were  established  with 
regard  to  the  ceremonies  ;  and  this  monstrous  usage,  as  it  is  called  by  Montesquieu, 
was  reduced  to  a  system,  and  illustrated  by  an  extensive  jurisprudence.  Men, 
says  this  ingenious  Frenchman,  subject  to  rules  even  their  prejudices.  Nothing 
was  more  contrary  to  good  sense  than  the  judicial  combat,  but  being  once  recog 
nized,  it  was  conducted  with  a  certain  prudence.  In  this  respect,  as  in  many 
others,  it  bears  a  resemblance  to  the  great  trial  by  battle  which  still  prevails  be 
tween  nations  ;  and  which  has  its  artificial  and  complex  regulations,  the  so  called 
laws  of  war. 

The  field  for  the  combat  was  selected  with  care  ;  and  in  many  places  there  was 
an  open  space  for  this  purpose  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Church.  We  learn  by 
an  accidental  notice  in  Froissart,  that  there  was  a  tribune  attached  to  the  walls  of 
the  Abbey  of  St.  German  des  Prcs,  in  Paris,  which  was  destined  for  the  judges  of 
the  combat,  and  which  overlooked  the  meadow  aux  Clercs,  which  served  for  a 
field.  (Froissart,  c.  383,  p.  290  ;  Sismondi,  Histoire,  X.  514.)  The  ground  being 
selected,  a  large  fire  was  kindled,  and  a  gallows  erected  for  the  vanquished.  Two 
seats  covered  with  black  were  also  prepared  for  the  combatants,  on  which  they 
received  certain  admonitions,  and  were  made  to  swear  on  the  Holy  Evangelists 
that  they  had  not  had  recourse  to  sorcery,  witchcraft,  or  incantation.  They  had 
previously  attended  the  celebration  of  mass,  the  forms  of  which  for  such  occasions 
are  still  to  be  found  in  certain  old  missals,  where  it  is  called  missa  pro  duello.  In 
certain  cases  of  physical  inability,  and  where  women  and  the  clergy  were  con 
cerned,  a  battle  by  proxy  was  allowed,  and  regular  bravoes,  called  champions,  were 
hired  for  this  purpose ;  dreadful  trade,  it  would  seem,  since  the  right  hand  of  the 
champion  was  lopped  off  in  the  event  of  his  being  worsted.  Meanwhile  the  prin 
cipals  were  kept  out  of  the  lists  with  ropes  about  their  necks,  and  he  who  was 
beaten  by  proxy  was  forthwith  hanged  in  person,  although  in  certain  cases  he  was 
allowed  to  be  decapitated.  (Millingen,  Hist,  of  Duelling,  Vol.  I.  31,  32;  Montes 
quieu,  Esprit  des  Lois,  Liv.  28,  cap.  19.) 

In  England,  trial  by  battle  was  conducted  with  peculiar  form,  in  the  presence  of 
the  judges  in  their  scarlet  robes,  who  presided  over  the  field  which  was  duly  set 
out  of  sixty  feet  square,  and  enclosed  by  lists.  It  appears  that  trials  of  this  kind  were 
so  frequent,  that  fines,  paid  on  these  occasions,  made  no  inconsiderable  branch  of 
the  King's  Revenue.  (Madox,  Hist.  Excheq.  Vol.  I.  349.)  For  some  time  after 
the  Conquest  the  only  mode  of  trying  a  writ  of  right,  for  the  determination  of  the 
title  to  real  property  was  this  barbarous  proceeding;  but  Henry  II,  by  consent  of 
parliament,  introduced  the  grand  assise,  a  peculiar  species  of  trial  by  jury,  in  con 
currence  therewith  ;  giving  the  party  against  whom  the  action  is  brought  his  choice 
of  either  the  one  or  the  other.  The  establishment  of  this  alternative  is  pronounced 
by  Glanville,  his  Chief  Justice,  and  probably  his  adviser  therein,  a  certain  benefit. 
He  says  :  duelli  casum  declinare  possint  homines  ambiguum.  Jus  enim,  quod  post 
multas  ct  longas  dilationes  vix  evincitur  per  duellum,  per  beneficium  istius  constitu- 
tionis  comrnodius  et  acceleratius  expeditur.  (1.  2.  c.  7.^  A  trial  by  combat  was 
appointed  in  England  in  1571,  under  the  inspection  of  the  judges  of  the  Court  of 


85 

Common  Pleas ;  but  Queen  Elizabeth  interposed  her  authority,  and  enjoined  the 
parties  to  compound  the  matter  ;  yet  in  order  to  preserve  what  was  called  their 
honor,  the  lists  were  marked  out,' and  all  the  forms  previous  to  the  combat  were 
observed  with  much  ceremony.  (Spelrn.  Gloss,  veb.  campus,  p.  103.)  The  last 
time  that  this  trial  was  actually  awarded  in  England,  was  in  1631,  between  Lord 
Rae  and  Mr.  Ramsey.  King  Charles  I  appointed,  by  commission,  a  constable  of 
England  to  preside  over  it,  who  proclaimed  a  day,  on  which  the  combatants  were 
to  appear  with  a  spear,  a  long  sword,  a  short  sword,  and  a  dagger;  but  this  was 
accommodated  without  bloodshed.  (Hargrave,  State  Trials,  XI.  124.^  The  form 
of  proceeding  fell  into  desuetude,  overruled  by  the  advancing  spirit  of  civilization.- 
but,  to  the  disgrace  of  the  English  law,  it  was  not  legislatively  abolished  till  in  1817 
the  right  to  it  had  been  distinctly  claimed  in  the  Court  of  King's  Bench.  Abraham 
Thornton,  in  an  appeal  against  him  for  murder,  when  brought  into  court,  pleaded 
as  follows  :  "Not  Guilty,  and  I  am  ready  to  defend  the  same  by  my  body;"  and 
thereupon  taking  off  his  glove,  he  threw  it  upon  the  floor  of  the  court.  The  appel 
lant  did  not  choose  to  submit  to  this  trial,  and  abandoned  his  proceedings.  In  the 
next  session  of  parliament,  trial  by  battle  was  abolished  in  England.  (Blackstone, 
Com.  Vol.  III.  337,  Chitty's  note.)  The  Attorney-General,  in  introducing  the  bill 
for  this  purpose,  remarked,  that  "  if  the  party  had  persevered,  he  had  no  doubt 
the  legislature  would  have  felt  it  their  imperious  duty  to  interfere  and  pass  an  ex 
post  facto  law,  fo_  prevent  so  degrading  a  spectacle  from  taking  place."  Annual 
Register,  Vol.  LXI.  p.  52.  (1819).  Is  not  war  between  nations  an  equally  de^rad- 
ing  spectacle  ? 

93"  The  principal  modern  authorities  for  the  history  of  the  judicial  combat  are 
the  admirable  note  by  Robertson  (History  of  Charles  V.  Vol.  I.  note  22);  Montes 
quieu  (Esprit  des  Lois,  Liv.  28,  cap.  17-29),  whose  luminous  mind  has  cast  upon 
it  a  brilliant  flood  of  light;  Blackstone  (Commentaries,  Vol.  III.  337-351  ;  Vol.  IV. 
346-348,  419);  Hallam  (Middle  Ages,  Vol.  I.  187,  cap.  2,  pt.  2);  the  humane  and 
accomplished  Sismondi  (Histoire  des  Franqais  VIII.  77-78) ;  Guizot,  in  a  work  of 
remarkable  beauty  of  historical  inquiry  and  depth  of  philosophy,  more  grave  than 
the  Esprit  des  Lois,  and  enlightened  by  loftier  ideas  of  human  progress  and  virtue 
(Hisloire  de  la  Civilization  en  France  depuis  la  chute  de  1'Empire  Remain,  Tome 
IV.  89,  149-166);  our  learned  countryman,  Mr.  Wheaton  (History  of  the  North 
men,  Cap.  III.  and  XII.);  and  Milling'en,  (History  of  Duelling,  2  vols.,)  a  writer 
hardly  deserving  the  character  of  an  authority,  and  utterly  unworthy  a  place  in  this 
fellowship  of  authors. 


NOTE    C. 

[Referred  to  on  page  29.] 

A  CONGRESS  OF  NATIONS  AND  ARBITRATION.  It  is  intended  to  offer  in  this  Note, 
a  sketch  of  the  efforts  of  private  men,  and  the  examples  of  Nations  tending  to  a 
Congress  of  Nations,  or  an  established  system  of  Arbitration  without  anneal  to 
War. 

The  duty  and  importance  of  Universal  Peace  was  recommended  by  the  early 
Fathers  of  the  Christian  Church.  The  character  of  the  good  Man  of  Peace  was 
described  in  the  15th  century,  in  that  work  of  unexampled  circulation,  which  has 
been  translated  into  all  modern  languages,  and  republished  more  than  a  thousand 
times.  (De  Imitatione  Christi,  by  Thomas  a  Kempis,  Lib.  2.  cap.  3.)  The  writ 
ings  of  Erasmus,  at  the  close  of  the  same  century,  abound  in  the  spirit  of  Peace. 
In  the  17th  century,  Nicole,  a  friend  of  Pascal,  one  of  the  fellowship  of  Port  Royal, 
and  one  of  the  highest  names  in  the  Church  of  France,  in  his  Essais  de  Morale,  in 
six  volumes,  gave  to  the  world  Traite  des  Moyens  de  conserver  la  Paix  avec  les 
Hommcs,  a  treatise  which  Voltaire  terms  "  a  master-piece  to  which  nothing  equal 
has  been  left  to  us  by  Antiquity."  (Siecle  de  Louis  XIV.  See  Hallam's  History 
of  Literature,  Vol.  III.  383,  part  IV.  cap.  4).  It  is  to  be  found  in  a  recent  edition 
of  the  Pensccs  de  Pascal,  The  reader  of  our  day  cannot  perceive  in  it  the  exalted 
merit  which  drew  forth  the  eulogy  of  Voltaire.  At  the  beginning  of  the  18th  cen 
tury  appeared  the  Projst  de  Paix  Perpetuelle,  in  three  volumes,  by  the  Abbe  Saint 
Pierre,  which  the  benevolent  author,  by  a  species  of  pious  fraud,  attributed  to 


86 

Henry  IV  and  his  Minister  Sully,  with  the  view  of  recommending  it  to  the  adop 
tion  of  the  Sovereigns  and  Ministers,  to  whom  the  authority  of  these  great  names 
would  be  more  imposing  than  the  intrinsic  merit  of  the  scheme  itself.  His  ideas 
were  characterized  by  the  profligate  minister  and  cardinal  Dubois  as  les  reves  frun 
homme  de  bicn.  Afterwards  in  1761,  that  great  genius,  Rousseau,  published  a  little 
work  to  which  he  modestly  gave  the  title,  Extrait  du  Projct  de  Paix  perpetuelle  de 
M'l'Abbe.  de  Saint  Pierre.  Without  appealing  to  those  higher  motives,  for  address 
ing  which  to  sovereigns  Saint  Pierre  had  most  unjustly  incurred  the  ridicule  of 
practical  statesmen,  such  as  the  love  of  true  glory,  of  humanity,  and  a  regard  to 
the  dictates  of  conscience  and  the  precepts  of  religion,  Rousseau  merely  supposes 
princes  to  be  endowed  with  common  sense,  and  capable  of  estimating  how  much 
their  interests  would  be  promoted  by  submitting  their  respective  pretensions  to  the 
arbitration  of  an  impartial  tribunal,  rather  than  resorting  to  the  uncertain  issue  of 
arms,  which  even  to  the  victor  cannot  bring  adequate  cempensation  for  the  blood 
and  treasure  expended  in  the  contest.  (See  Wheaton's  History  of  the  law  of  Na 
tions,  part  2,  <S  17.) 

There  are  fragments  of  a  Project  of  Perpetual  Peace,  by  the  late  Jeremy  Bentham, 
recently  published  from  MSS.  bearing  date  from  1786  to  1789,  under  the  superin 
tendence  of  his  Executor,  Dr.  Bowring  (Part  8,  pp.  537-554,  London,  1839),  which 
are  marked  by  the  penetrating  sense  and  humanity  of  their  author. 

Of  late  years,  several  writers  of  the  different  schools  of  German  philosophy 
have  proposed  the  establishment  of  an  Amphictyonic  council  of  Nations,  by  which 
their  mutual  differences  might  be  judiciously  settled,  and  the  guilt  and  misery  of 
war  for  ever  abolished  among  civilized  nations.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
these  projects  of  Perpetual  Peace  was  that  published  by  Kant  in  1795.  He  says  : 
"  What  we  mean  to  propose  is  a  general  Congress  of  Nations,  of  which  both  the  meet 
ing  and  the  duration  are  to  depend  entirely  on  the  sovereign  wills  of  the  League, 
and  not  an  indissoluble  Union  like  that  which  exists  between  the  several  States 
of  North  America  founded  on  a  Municipal  constitution.  Such  a  Congress,  and  such 
a  League,  are  the  only  means  of  realizing  the  idea  of  a  true  public  law,  according 
to  which  the  difference  between  nations  would  be  determined  by  civil  proceedings 
as  those  between  individuals  are  determined  by  civil  judicature,  instead  of  resort 
ing  to  war,  a  means  of  redress  worthy  only  of  barbarians."  Kant,  Rechtslehre, 
Zweiten  Theil,  §  61.  The  principles  of  Kant  on  this  subject  have  been  contested 
by  another  celebrated  German  Philosopher,  Hegel,  in  the  spirit  of  one  whose  mind 
was  so  imbued  with  the  history  of  the  Past,  as  to  be  insensible  to  the  charms  of 
Peace.  A  state  of  perpetual  peace,  he  says,  if  it  could  be  realized,  would  produce 
a  moral  stagnation  among  nations.  Hegel,  Philosophic  des  Rechts,  herausgegeben 
Von  Gans  §  321-339.  See  also  Wheaton's  History  of  the  Law  of  Nations,  part  4, 
\S  36,  37. 

Most  important  information  on  this  subject  is  collected  in  the  volume  of  Prize 
Essays  published  by  the  American  Peace  Society,  and  in  a  little  tract  entitled  a 
Congress  of  Nations,  by  the  same  Society.  The  useful  life  of  the  late  William 
Ladd  was  devoted  to  the  diffusion  of  information  on  this  subject. 

A  General  Peace  Convention  was  held  in  London,  in  June,  1843,  composed  of 
delegates  from  various  countries,  which  was  organized  by  the  choice  of  Charles 
Hindley,  Esq.,  M.  P.,  as  President,  and  the  Marquis  de  la  Rochefoucault  Lian- 
court,  a  member  of  the  French  Chamber  of  Deputies,  as  Vice  President.  The 
Convention  was  graced  by  the  presence  of  many  persons,  well  known  for  their  la 
bours  of  philanthropy.  Among  those  prominent  in  political  life  v.'ho  took  a  part 
in  its  proceedings,  were  Lord  Robert  Grosvenor,  William  Sherman  Crawford,  M.  P., 
Richard  Cobden,  M.  P.,  Joseph  Hume,  M.P.,  W.  Ewart,  M.P.,  Dr.  Bowring, 
M.  P. 

The  Convention  was  called  together  on  the  principle,  "  that  war  is  inconsistent 
with  the  spirit  of  Christianity  and  with  the  true  interests  of  mankind."  The  fol 
lowing  are  among  the  Resolutions  which  it  adopted : 

On  Arbitration  instead  of  War.  "  That  this  Convention  earnestly  recommends 
to  Governments,  Members  of  Legislative  bodies,  and  public  functionaries,  the 
adoption  of  the  principle  of  arbitration  for  the  adjustment  of  all  international  differ 
ences  ;  and  that  stipulations  be  introduced  into  all  international  treaties  to  provide 
for  this  mode  of  adjustment ;  whereby  recourse  to  war  may  be  entirely  avoided 
between  such  nations  as  shall  agree  to  abide  by  such  stipulation." 

On  a  Congress  of  Nations.  "  That  while  recommending  the  plan  of  Judge  Jay, 
which  proposes  that  Nations  should  enter  into  treaty  stipulations  to  refer  their  dif- 


87 

ferences  to  the  arbitration  of  a  friendly  power,  as  a  measure  the  most  immediately 
available  for  the  prevention  of  war,  we  still  regard,  as  peace  societies  have  from 
their  origin  regarded,  especially  as  set  forth  by  the  late  WILLIAM  LADD  Esq  a 
Congress  of  Nations  to  settle  and  perfect  the  code  of  international  law,  and  a  High 
Court  of  Nations  to  interpret  and  apply  that  for  the  settlement  of  all  National  dis 
putes,  as  that  which  should  be  further  kept  in  view  by  the  friends  of  peace,  and 
urged  upon  the  Governments  as  one  of  the  best  practical  modes  of  settling  peace 
fully  and  satisfactorily  such  international  disputes. 

On  Preparation  for  War.  "  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  Convention,  prepara 
tions  for  war  are  so  many  incentives  to  war,  and  ought  to  be  discouraged  bv  all 
friends  of  peace." 

There  are  now  Peace  Societies  at  London,  at  Paris,  at  Brussels,  at  Geneva, 
all  cooperating  in  this  holy  cause.  The  American  Peace  Society  is  the  oldest, 
and  has  already  been  the  means  of  great  good.  It  has  adopted  as  a  fundamental 
article  in  its  constitution  the  declaration  that  all  war  is  forbidden  by  Christianity. 
Its  officers  and  principal  members  include  some  of  the  most  prominent  divines 
and  public  characters  of  our  country;  among  whom  are  the  President,  S.  E. 
Coues;  Rev.  Andrew  P.  Peabody,  of  Portsmouth,  N.  H.;  Rev.  Charles  Lowell,' 
of  Boston;  Rev.  Ezra  S.  Gannett,  of  Boston ;  Rev.  Francis  Wayland,  of  Provi 
dence,  R.  I.;  Rev.  C.  E.  Stowe,  of  Cincinnati;  Rev.  Howard  Malcolm,  of 
Georgetown,  Ky.;  Theodore  Frelinghuysen,  of  New  York;  William  W.  Ells 
worth,  of  Hartford,  Conn.;  Gerrit  Smith,  of  Peterborough,  N.  Y.;  William  Jav, 
of  Bedford,  N.  Y.;  Professor  Greenleaf,  of  Cambridge ;  Samuel  A.  Elliot  of 
Boston  ;  Sidney  Willard,  of  Cambridge ;  Thomas  W.  Ward,  of  Boston  ;  Rev. 
William  Jenks  ;  Rev.  Orville  Dewey,  of  New  York  ;  Jonathan  Chapman  ;  Martin 
Brimrner,  of  Boston  ;  Amasa  Walker. 

Of  a  society,  composed  of  such  names,  subscribing  to  such  a  principle, — it 
would  be  difficult  for  Southey  to  repeat  the  gibe,  which  he  allowed  himself  to 
utter  in  his  Colloquies  on  the  Progress  and  Prospects  of  Society,  I.  224:  "  I  say 
nothing  of  the  Society  for  the  Abolition  of  War  (Heaven  bless  the  mark  !) ;  it  has 
not  obtained  sufficient  notice  even  to  be  in  disrepute." 

History  furnishes  various  illustrations  of  the  principle  of  a  Congress  of  Nations, 
underline  name  of  Councils,  Leagues,  Diets  or  Congresses.  1.  The  Amphicty- 
onic  Council,  embracing  at  first  twelve  and  finally  thirty-one  states  or  cities,  was 
established  in  the  year  497  B.  C.  Each  city  sent  two  deputies,  and  had  two  votes 
in  the  Council,  which  had  full  power  to  discuss  all  differences  which  might  arise 
between  the  Amphictyonic  cities.  2.  The  Acfuean  League,  founded  at  a  very 
early  period,  and  renewed  in  284  B.  C.  Although  each  member  of  the  League 
was  independent  of  the  others,  yet  they  formed  one  body,  and  so  great  was  their 
reputation  for  justice  and  probity,  that  the  Greek  cities  of  Italy  referred  disputes 
to  their  arbitration.  3.  Passing  over  other  confederacies  of  antiquity,  we  come 
down  to  the  Hanseatic  League,  begun  in  the  twelfth  century  and  completed  near 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth.  It  comprised  at  one  time  ne"arly  eighty  cities.  A 
system  of  international  law  was  adopted  in  their  general  assemblies.  While  pur 
suing  a  pacific  policy,  they  flourished  beyond  all  precedent.  4.  In  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries  in  Germany,  various  other  cities  and  nobles  entered  into 
alliances  and  associations  for  mutual  protection,  under  various  names,  as  the 
League  of  the  Rhine  and  of  Suabia.  (Robertson,  Hist,  of  Charles  V.  Note  21.) 
5.  The  Helvetic  Union  began  so  long  ago  as  1308,  and  has  preserved  peace  among 
its  members  during  the  greater  part  of  five  centuries.  It  is  covenanted  by  this 
Union  that  all  public  dissensions  shall  be  settled  between  the  parties  in  an  amica 
ble  manner ;  and  with  this  view,  particular  judges  and  arbitrators  are  appointed 
with  power  to  compose  any  strife  that  may  arise.  6.  The  Grand  Scheme  of  Henry 
IV,  of  France,  for  the  blending  of  the  Christian  States  of  Europe  in  one  Confe 
deracy,  had  its  rise  more  in  selfish  ambition  than  in  true  humanity ;  but  it  has 
served  to  keep  before  Christendom  the  idea  of  the  same  common  tribune  for  the 
great  brotherhood  of  nations.  7.  The  United  States  of  America  furnish  an 
instance  of  the  union  of  twenty-six  different  States,  all  having  peculiar  interests, 
in  bonds  of  peace,  with  a  tribunal  which  has  jurisdiction  over  the  controversies 
of  the  States. 

William  Penn  once  said  of  the  schemes  of  Henry  IV,  "  his  example  tells  us 
that  it  is  fit  to  be  done;  Sir  William  Temple's  History  of  the  United  Provinces 
shows,  by  a  surpassing  instance,  that  it  may  be  done;  and  Europe,  by  her  incom 
parable  miseries,  that  it  ought  to  be  done." 


88 

It  seems,  in  the  order  of  Providence,  that  the  families,  tribes  and  nations  of 
the  earth  should  tend,  by  means  of  association,  to  a  final  Unity.  The  seven 
kingdoms  of  England  became  one  under  the  Saxon  Edgar;  Wales  was  forcibly 
absorbed  into  England  under  Edward  I ;  Ireland,  after  a  protracted  resistance, 
was  finally  absorbed  under  Edward  III ;  Scotland  became  connected  with  Eng 
land  by  the  accession  of  James  I  to  the  throne  of  the  Tudors,  and  the  two  coun 
tries  afterwards,  under  Queen  Anne,  were  united  by  an  act  of  peaceful  legislation. 
The  great  nations  of  France  and  Austria  have  passed  through  similar  stages  ;  dis 
jointed  fragments  and  scattered  limbs  have  been  brought  together;  provinces, 
which  once  possessed  an  equivocal  independence,  now  feel  new  power  and  hap 
piness  in  their  common  union.  This  is  the  great  process  of  crystallization,  which 
is  constantly  going  on  among  nations.  The  next  stage  will  be  the  association  of 
Christian  States. 

Our  country  possesses  peculiar  advantages  for  taking  the  initiative  in  the  diplo 
matic  measures  by  which  this  great  event  is  to  be  hastened.  A  Committee  of 
Congress,  in  a  Report  ascribed  to  the  late  Mr.  Legare,  recommended  in  1838, 
'•'a  reference  to  a  third  power  of  all  such  controversies  as  can  be  safely  confided 
to  any  tribunal  unknown  to  the  Constitution  of  our  country.  Such  a  practice, 
(say  the  Committee)  will  be  followed  by  other  powers,  and  will  soon  grow  up 
into  the  customary  law  of  civilized  nations."  The  Legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
by  a  series  of  Resolutions,  passed  with  great  unanimity  in  1844,  declare  it  their 
"  earnest  desire  that  the  government  of  the  United  States  would,  at  the  earliest 
opportunity,  take  measures  for  obtaining  the  consent  of  the  powers  of  Christ 
endom  to  the  establishment  of  a  General  Convention  or  Congress  of  Nations, 
for  the  purpose  of  settling  the  principles  of  international  law,  and  of  organizing 
a  high  court  of  nations,  to  adjudge  all  cases  of  difficulty  which  may  be  brought 
before  them  by  the  mutual  consent  of  two  or  more  nations."  Mr.  Jay,  in  his 
work  on  Peace  and  War,  while  he  foresees  the  ultimate  establishment  of  a  Con 
gress  of  Nations,  recommends  as  a  preliminary  step  the  formation  of  Treaties 
with  the  different  powers  of  Christendom,  providing  for  the  adjustment  of  diffi 
culties  by  arbitration. 

There  is  no  work  to  which  an  American  statesman  may  devote  himself,  in  the 
hope  of  fame,  or  in  the  desire  to  be  of  service  to  the  world,  that  can  compare  in 
grandeur  with  the  cause  which  is  now  most  earnestly  recommended  to  all  who 
have  any  influence  over  the  public  mind.  Let  the  President  of  the  United  States 
empower  our  ministers  at  all  the  Courts  to  which  they  are  accredited,  to  open 
negotiations  at  once  for  this  holy  purpose. 


NOTE    D. 

[Referred  to  on  page  32.] 

DR.  VINTON'S  SERMON.  The  sermon  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Vinton,  pronounced  be 
fore  the  Ancient  and  Honourable  Artillery  Company,  is  a  most  disheartening  pro 
duction.  It  is  the  subtle  effort  of  an  excellent  mind  to  reconcile  what  he  calls 
defensive  war  (he  does  not  show  that  such  a  war  is  possible,  in  this  age,  among 
Christian  nations)  with  the  injunctions  of  Christianity,  severing  and  dividing, 
as  with  profane  metaphysical  scissors,  a  most  intelligible  verse  of  the  Gospel, 
wholly  neglecting  others  of  great  and  controlling  significance,  and  seeking  to 
overturn  one  of  the  most  blessed  truths.  The  sermon  was  delivered  on  a  public 
occasion  of  ceremony,  before  a  military  body ;  it  was  voted  by  the  martial  critics 
"  able,  eloquent,  and  interesting,"  and  at  their  request  was  printed.  It  has  been 
praised  in  newspapers  ;  though  to  the  credit  of  a  wakeful  press,  which  now  exer 
cises  a  restraining  influence  over  the  clergy,  as  well  as  the  laity,  its  pernicious 
doctrines  and  its  unfair  reasoning  have  already  been  rebuked  by  two  able  writers 
in  different  journals.  It  has  thus  become  public  property,  and  as  such,  I  venture 
to  dwell  on  its  character. 

This  sermon  is  particularly  sinister  at  this  moment,  when  the  country  stands 
on  the  verge  of  two  wars,  which  will  be  proclaimed  to  be  defensive  in  their  cha 
racter,  though  having  in  them  no  element  of  self-defence,  and  being  mere  trials  of 
title  to  distant  territories.  It  is  also  unfair  in  its  peculiar  mode  of  treating  the 


89 

question.  There  is  an  honest  hardihood  in  the  military  ardour  with  which  Grotius 
(De  jure  Belli  ac  Pacis)  and,  since  him,  Mr.  Lieber,  (Political  Ethics),  march 
against  the  direct  injunctions  of  the  Saviour,  the  ipsissima  verba  of  the  Gospel, 
treating  them  as  of  little  or  no  account,  as  extravagances  or  exaggerations.  But 
Dr.  Vinton  founds  his  defence  of  war  on  a  single  verse  of  the  Gospel,  leaving  all 
others  untouched  and  even  concealing  them  from  the  view.  In  this  way  he  may 
avoid  seeming  directly  to  stultify  Him  whom  he  calls  Master,  by  declaring  that 
his  words  do  not  mean  what  they  seem  to  mean ;  that  He  did  not  know  what  he 
meant  when  he  said,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbour  and  hate  thine  enemy;  but  I  say  unto  you,  Love  your  enemies;"  anil 
that  Paul  indulged  in  an  impracticable  extravagance  when  he  said,  "Overcome 
evil  with  good."  But  placing  his  whole  argument  upon  a  single  verse,  the  whole 
superstructure  rushes  to  the  earth  when  the  interpretation  by  which  it  is  supported 
is  shown  to  be  inconsistent  with  the  general  character  and  teachings  of  Christ; 
inconsistent  with  the  fair  and  natural  sense  of  the  words  in  the  English  version; 
utterly  and  flagrantly  inconsistent  with  the  plain  and  grammatical  construction  of 
the  original  Greek ;  so  much  so  as  to  lead  to  the  conclusion  that  Dr.  Vinton  did  not 
refer  to  the  original  Greek,  or  did  not  understand  it.  I  am  indebted  to  a  friend, 
whose  name  it  would  be  superfluous  in  me  to  mention,  for  the  following  masterly- 
criticism  of  Dr.  Vinton's  treatment  of  this  verse.  After  reading  this,  no  person  can 
regard  it  otherwise  than  monstrous  to  found  a  Scriptural  defence  of  so  great  a  crime 
as  war  on  an  unfair,  ignorant  and  ungrammatical  perversion  of  a  few  short  words  in 
the  Gospel  of  peace. 

To  those  who  are  desirous  of  reading  a  natural  and  unanswerable  expression  of 
the  true  doctrine  of  Christianity  on  the  subject  of  war,  where  the  different  injunc 
tions  of  the  Saviour  seem  to  come  together  and  arrange  themselves,  not  by  subtle 
force,  but  spontaneously  and  by  divine  harmony,  I  would  refer  to  the  elaborate 
work  of  Dymond  on  War;  to  the  essay  by  Gurney,  entitled,  "  War  unlawful  under 
the  Christian  dispensation  ;"  the  Address  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  P.  Peabody,  before 
the  American  Peace  Society ;  and  the  truly  Christian  sermon  of  Rev.  Mr.  Bogue7 
of  England. 

If  the  habit  of  delivering  sermons  before  a  military  company  should  be  continued., 
and  another  Christian  minister  be  found  consenting  another  year  to  degrade  the 
c;  blessedness"  of  the  Gospel  to  the  "  blasphemy"  of  war,  I  hope  he  will  be  willing 
to  attend  to  the  following  points:  First,  the  numerous  direct  texts  in  the  Gospel, 
all  of  them  embracing  war  in  their  general  condemnation,  or  enjoining  peace;  se 
cond,  the  character  of  Christ  and  his  immediate  disciples,  and  the  question,  whe 
ther  it  is  possible  to  suppose  Christ,  or  the  youthful  John,  or  even  the  fiery  Peter, 
doing  duty  as  soldiers,  either  in  the  militia,  or  the  regular  army,  or  preaching  ser 
mons  in  praise  of  the  profession  of  arms,  or  riding  as  chaplains  of  a  military  parade  ; 
third,  the  history  of  the  Christian  church  during  the  first  four  centuries,  showing 
conclusively  that  it  was  then  regarded  as  wrong  in  a  Christian  to  bear  arms  ;  fourth, 
if  any  kind  of  war  is  consistent  with  Christianity,  let  him  explain  precisely  what, 
to  the  end  that  its  sacred  sanctions  may  not  be  thrown  over  all  wars, — a  piratical 
contest  for  Texas,  or  a  mere  quarrel  about  the  title  to  Oregon ;  fifth,  if  he  should 
assert  that  what  are  called  defensive  wars  are  consistent  with  Christianity,  let  him 
explain  precisely  what  is  meant  by  a  defensive  war,  and  show  the  possibility, — the 
most  distant  possibility, — of  the  occurrence  of  such  a  war  in  this  age,  among  Chris 
tian  nations ;  sixth,  if  he  should  conclude  that  Christianity  forbids  all  wars,  or  all 
wars  but  defensive  wars,  while  it  is  impossible  and  monstrous  to  suppose  the  case 
of  such  a  war  in  our  age,  let  him  then  consider  whether  all  preparations  for  war 
are  not  improper,  and  whether  a  Christian  minister  is  not  justly  reprehensible  who 
lends  them  the  sanction  of  his  presence. 

The  following  criticism,  which  I  hasten  to  present,  will  render  it  necessary  for 
any  successor  of  Dr.  Vinton  in  the  church  militant,  to  occupy  a  position  on  some 
other  verse  of  the  Gospel  than  that  on  which  he  chose  to  throw  up  his  entrench 
ments.  As  the  majestic  elms  on  the  Boulevards  of  Paris,  affording  a  generous 
shade  to  the  people,  were  hewn  down  to  become  barricades  in  the  Revolution  of 
July,  so  the  blessed  texts  of  the  Gospel,  under  whose  broad  and  sacred  shelter  all 
mankind  might  repose  in  peace,  from  generation  to  generation,  are  felled  to  th.& 
earth,  and  converted  into  defences  of  war. 


90 

The  first  four  pages  of  Dr.  VintorTs  Artillery  Election  Sermon  contain  a  good 
and  Christian-like  exposition  of  the  text,  "  If  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world,  then 
would  my  servants  fight."  But  as  this  plain  and  pious  course  of  remark  is  not 
adapted  to  the  military  exigencies  of  the  occasion,  it  is  necessary  for  the  sermon 
to  change  front,  and  turn  its  battery,  as  it  were,  upon  the  position  it  began  by  de 
fending.  This  manoeuvre,  more  martial  than  clerical,  is  executed  by  substituting 
for  the  words  of  the  Saviour  a  paraphrase  which  contradicts  them.  They  have 
"  an  indirect  meaning,"  says  Dr.  Vinton,  and  so  acting  upon  the  principles  of  Po- 
lonius'  advice  to  Laertes,  he  proceeds  by  "  indirections"  to  "  find  directions  out." 
"  Their  paraphrase,"  he  continues,  would  be  thus:  "  If  my  kingdom  were  of  the 
sort  which  my  enemies  supposed,  if  the  object  of  my  government  were  specially  to 
establish  personal  security,  to  promote  social  comfort,  or  to  maintain  national  inde 
pendence,  or  any  other  objects  for  which  human  governments  are  formed,  then  it 
would  be  both  necessary  and  right  to  resist  the  injustice  which  has  delivered  me  to 
this  tribunal." 

The  formal  division  of  the  Scriptures  into  minute  portions,  called  verses,  gives 
great  license  to  ingenious  misinterpretation,  and  is  the  occasion  of  much  ecclesi 
astical  sophistry-  The  preacher  takes  a  sentence,  clause,  or  even  a  single  phrase 
out  of  its  connection,  and  instead  of  interpreting  it  in  the  broad  light  of  the  general 
truths  of  Christianity.,  wrests  it  from  the  combination  in  which  it  stands,  and  makes 
it  the  theme  of  a  sermon.  Like  the  ancient  Sophists  he  can  thus  sustain  any 
side  of  any  question.  "  Hang  all  the  law  and  prophets"  is  a  familiar  and  ludicrous 
instance  of  textual  perversion;  but  it  is  not  more  untenable  and  distorted  than  the 
graver  paraphrase  on  which  Dr.  Vinton  has  founded  the  main  part  of  his  discourse. 
Where  did  he  learn  that  the  language  of  Christ  contains  such  double  and  contra 
dictory  meanings  as  his  paraphrase  superinduces  upon  that  text?  that  besides  the 
idea  which  the  Saviour's  words  obviously  expressed,  there  was  an  arriere  pensce, 
a  sort  of  mental  reservation,  to  be  drawn  out  ages  after  they  were  spoken,  but 
sealed  against  the  understanding  of  the  man  to  whom  they  were  addressed  by  the 
living  tongue  ? 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  the  mind  on  reading  the  paraphrase  is,  that  this  inter 
pretation  puts  into  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  a  platitude  and  a  paralogism.  For  on 
such  an  occasion  it  would  have  been  a  very  inept  proceeding  to  enter  even  by 
implication  upon  a  general  political  thesis.  Next  it  would  have  been  an  extraor 
dinary  piece  of  logic  to  affirm  that  force  might  rightly  be  used  in  establishing 
organizations  so  imperfect  as  human  governments  always  have  been,  and  so  irreli 
gious  in  their  practices,  and  yet  that  it  would  not  be  right  to  use  force  to  protect 
the  perfect  innocence  and  godlike  sanctity  of  Christ,  in  his  labours  to  reform  and 
save  the  world.  If  force  could  be  rightly  used  in  the  former  case,  it  might  a 
fortiori  be  rightly  used  in  the  latter.  If  wars  may  rightly  be  waged  in  defence  or 
support  of  the  imperfect  and  the  sinful,  they  may  for  still  stronger  reasons  be  rightly 
waged  for  the  perfect  and  the  sinless. 

The  circumstances  under  which  Christ  addressed  to  Pontius  Pilate  the  remark 
able  words,  "My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world;  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world, 
then  would  my  servants  fight  that  I  should  not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews,"  place 
their  meaning  beyond  a  doubt. 

The  Saviour,  well  knowing  that  his  ministry  on  earth  was  nearly  finished,  had 
met  his  disciples  and  delivered  to  them  his  last  and  most  affecting  instructions. 
In  the  meantime  the  Jewish  authorities,  the  Priests,  and  Pharisees,  and  Scribes, 
whose  hardened  hearts  had  been  pierced,  and  whose  hypocritical  lives  had  been 
rebuked  by  the  divine  teachings  of  the  Son  of  Man,  corrupted  the  fidelity  of  one  of 
his  professed  followers,  who  agreed  for  a  sum  of  money  to  betray  his  master  into 
their  hands.  Wrought  up  to  fury  by  Christ's  searching  denunciations,  which  their 
consciences  had  been  utterly  helpless  to  gainsay,  they  were  resolved  to  shed  his 
blood,  be  the  means  and  the  consequences  what  they  might.  To  make  sure  of  their 
victim  they  called  in  the  aid  of  a  military  band,  the  ready  instruments  of  every 
deed  of  wickedness  and  blood  ;  and  appointing  the  traitor,  Judas  Iscariot,  their 
guide,  despatched  them  in  martial  array  to  steal  upon  the  holiest  of  the  messengers 
of  God  in  the  silence  and  retirement  of  the  night,  and  to  arrest  him  with  every  cir 
cumstance  of  insult,  like  a  vulgar  malefactor.  But  when  the  myrmidons  of  guilt 
and  hate  were  led  by  the  betrayer  into  the  presence  of  that  mysterious  man,  unable 
to  stand  before  the  terrors  of  his  countenance,  "they  went  backward  and  fell  to 
the  ground."  Overcoming  at  length  the  awe  which  had  struck  them  powerless, 
the  rude  soldiery  laid  their  hands  on  Jesus  and  bound  him.  They  conducted  him 


91 

first  to  the  house  of  Annas,  and  then  arraigned  him  before  Caiaphas,  the  high  priest 
of  that  year.  At  the  palace  of  this  priest,  the  Sanhedrim,  or  Supreme  Council  of 
the  Jewish  nation,  consisting  of  the  bitterest  foes  of  Jesus,  who  were  bent  with 
unpitying  rage  upon  his  murder,  was  hurriedly  assembled ;  and  the  brief  and  pas 
sionate  debate  ended  with  the  predetermined  judgment  of  death.  But  the  Jews 
were  under  a  foreign  yoke.  Judea  was  but  a  province  added  by  conquest  to  the 
vast  empire  of  Rome.  A  procurator,  representing  the  imperial  power,  was  sta 
tioned  as  governor  at  Jerusalem.  Knowing  the  obstinate  and  rebellious  character 
of  the  people,  it  was  his  duty  to  watch  with  sleepless  eye  every  sign  of  insubordi 
nation  in  the  conquered  province.  Without  his  sanction,  no  capital  sentence  could 
be  carried  into  execution.  And  so  the  procession  formed  anew,  priests,  and  rabbis, 
and  the  martial  array,  to  conduct  the  serene  and  unresisting  victim  to  the  judgment 
hall  of  Pilate.  This  company,  stranger  than  was  ever  assembled  before  or  since 
in  the  history  of  the  world,  approached  the  Roman  tribunal  just  as  the  morning  was 
breaking  over  the  dread  scene.  The  tragedy  of  the  Saviour's  life,  crowded  with 
eternal  consequences  to  the  happiness  of  man,  was  swiftly  drawing  towards  its  catas 
trophe.  His  enemies,  maddened  by  unreasoning  hatred,  shrank  not  from  the  foulest 
means  to  bring  about  their  fell  intent ;  and  incident  after  incident  in  the  awful 
drama,  pregnant  with  inappreciable  significance  for  the  destiny  of  the  human  soul, 
pressed  the  great  action  forward  with  startling  rapidity. 

The  Jews  resolved  to  employ  the  easily  excited  jealousy  of  the  Roman  governor 
to  strike  their  victim  down.  To  accomplish  their  fiendish  purpose  the  more  rea 
dily,  they  charged  him  with  a  political  design  against  the  sovereign  power ;  a 
design,  which  in  their  gross  conceptions  of  the  predicted  Messiah,  they  imagined 
and  hoped  he  would  appear  on  earth  to  execute ;  an  imagination  and  a  hope  which 
the  language  and  actions  of  Christ  had  pointedly  contradicted  again  and  again,  and 
thus  added  to  the  exasperation  which  they  felt,  on  other  grounds,  against  his  per 
son.  They  charged  him,  in  effect,  with  a  conspiracy  against  the  Imperial  power ; 
with  intending  to  make  himself  a  king  and  to  shake  off  the  Roman  yoke  ;  and  to 
substantiate  this  treasonous  charge,  they  dishonestly  perverted  the  figurative  lan 
guage  which  they  had  heard  him  use  on  several  occasions.  They  could  not  enter 
the  pretorium  with  their  destined  victim,  because  the  feast  of  the  passover  w^s 
near  at  hand,  and  they  desired  to  eat  of  it,  which  they  could  not  religiously  do,  if 
they  went  in, — good,  pious  men  that  they  were, — but  they  could  knowingly  forge 
a  lie,  and  for  the  sake  of  shedding  innocent  blood,  swear  falsely  to  a  crime  which, 
by  the  Roman  law,  was  punishable  with  an  ignominious  death  upon  the  cross. 
Pilate  having  listened  outside  of  the  hall  to  the  accusation  so  insidiously  shaped 
and  adapted  to  rouse  all  his  Roman  fears,  suspicions  and  prejudices  against  the 
prisoner,  r.e-entered  the  pretorium  and  questioned  him  upon  this  very  point.  What 
was  Christ's  answer  ?  A  positive,  intelligible  asseveration,  as  plain  as  words  could 
express  any  thought  of  the  mind,  and  as  exclusive  of  the  possibility  of  any  sup 
posed  indirect  or  hidden  meaning,  as  the  most  transparent  singleness  of  heart 
could  make  it:  "  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world  ;  if  my  kingdom  were  of  this 
world,  then  would  my  servants  fight  for  me  that  I  might  not  be  delivered  to  the 
Jews."  All  these  words  of  the  Saviour  are  limited  by  the  last  clause,  i(  That  I 
might  not  be  delivered  to  the  Jews,"  to  his  own  case ;  nor,  whatever  their  mean 
ing  may  be,  can  they  be  tortured  by  any  ingenious  sophistry  into  a  general  thesis, 
express  or  implied,  upon  the  rightfulness  of  sustaining  government  by  force,  still 
less  into  an  authoritative  sanction  of  any  kind  of  war.  What  Christ  said,  he 
meant;  no  more,  and  no  less.  Pilate  understood  his  words,  and  was  satisfied  of 
his  innocence.  But  if  Christ  had  said  what  the  preacher's  paraphrase  represents 
him  to  have  indirectly  implied,  Pilate  could  not'  possibly  have  gone  out  and  de 
clared  to  the  Jews  that  he  found  no  fault  in  him;  for  Pilate  must  have  understood 
him  to  mean,  that  though  as  a  matter  of  fact,  he  entertained  no  such  design  as  was 
charged  upon  him  by  the  Jews,  still,  had  he  been  a  temporal  leader,  he  might  right 
fully  have  maintained  his  cause  by  an  appeal  to  arms;  that  is,  under  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  the  case,  Pilato  must  have  understood  Christ  to  maintain  and  de 
clare  a  set  of  political  or  patriotic  principles  wholly  at  variance  with  submission  to 
the  Roman  Supremacy.  Looking  at  the  case,  then,  from  the  Roman  point  of 
view,  and  under  a  sense  of  weighty  responsibility  to  the  central  power  whose  dele 
gate  he  was,  he  would  have  said  to  the  Jews,  with  perfect  truth,  "  I  cannot,  in 
deed,  find  that  this  man  has  been  guilty  of  any  overt  act  of  rebellion;  but  he  is  a 
dangerous  person  and  disloyal  to  Rome;  he  declares,  that  were  he  a  temporal  prince, 
he  might  rightfully  draw  the  sword.  When  he  says  that  his  kingdom  is  not  of  this 


92 

world,  he  is  doubtless  making  a  cunning  fetch  to  extricate  himself  from  the  pre 
sent  danger.  It  is  a  distinction  without  a  difference.  I  am  not  to  be  cheated  with 
these  fraudulent  subtleties.  The  principles  he  professes  to  my  face,  would  justify 
him  in  rebelling  whenever  he  might  think  he  possessed  the  ability  to  command  suc 
cess.  It  is  my  duty  to  Rome  to  put  him  out  of  the  way.  Do  with  him  what  you 
will."  But  Pilate  drew  no  such  meaning  from  the  Saviour's  words  ;  he  saw  with 
perfect  clearness  into  the  true  state  of  the  case,  and  told  the  Jews,  not  that  he 
could  discover  no  actj^ov,  but  that  he  perceived  no  fault,  or  ground  of  charge,  alrictv, 
against  the  prisoner,  and  with  importunate  eagerness  urged  them  to  let  him  go. 
The  Jews  could  not  help  perceiving  that  their  attempt  to  fasten  upon  Christ  a  poli 
tical  crime  had  so  far  failed,  nor  did  they,  until  some  time  afterwards,  repeat  the 
charge,  but  in  the  senseless,  brutal  rabidness  of  disappointed  malice,  shrieked  out, 
"  Crucify  him,  crucify  him.  We  have  a  law,  and  by  our  law  he  ought  to  die,  be 
cause  he  has  made  himself  a  Son  of  God." 

If  Christ  meant  what  the  paraphrase  makes  him  to  imply,  he  was  guilty  of  a  dis 
honest  trick ;  a  Jesuitical  playing  with  the  ambiguities  of  human  speech.  This 
conclusion  any  reader,  of  common  sense,  must  arrive  at,  upon  a  careful  considera 
tion  and  comparison  of  the  incidents  in  the  marvellous  history.  But  an  examination 
of  the  Greek  original  of  the  passage  in  which  these  transactions  are  related  makes 
assurance  doubly  sure.  The  interpretation  of  Dr.  Vinton  will  be  defended  by  no 
tolerable  Greek  scholar  on  philological  or  hermeneutic  grounds.  The  words  are, 
"  CH  /3a<riXE;a  tj  l^ni  oux.  £?TIV  EX.  rev  jcoVjUoy  TO'UTOU.  Ei  Ix  TOV  xoa-[*ov  rwrcv  "vv  n  /3ao-[Xsta 
rj  l/otJi,  o!  i/7T>]e£Taj  civ  cl  \fj>.ot  Jjy*iv;£ovTo,  ''va  (An  TTa^aJoQiS  ToTf  loyJatoij'  v£v  £E  ri  6a,a~t- 
Xgi'a  n  Ifjiri  ovu  l<nw  Ivrti/Qsv."  It  should  be  re  marked,  first,  that  the  preposition  !*, 
translated  in  our  English  version  of,  means  from,  and  denotes  origin  from  a  place 
or  source ;  second,  that  the  two  expressions  on  which  the  sense  of  the  passage  de 
pends,  each  being  qualified,  one  by  the  particle  It,  the  other  by  the  particle  «v,  stand 
to  each  other  in  the  relation  of  conditioning  and  conditioned  clauses  ;  third,  that  the 
verbs  ^y  and  tywv^ovro  are  in  the  indicative  mode  ;  fourth,  that  they  are  in  the 
imperfect  tense  ;  and  fifth,  that  the  word  xoy/uov,  world,  is  used  by  the  sacred  writ 
ers  in  a  bad  sense,  as  contrasted  with  goodness,  piety  or  God.  Literally  trans 
lated,  then,  the  passage  would  run,  "  My  kingdom  is  not  from  this  world  ;  if  my 
kingdom  were  from  this  world,  then  my  servants  would  fight  that  I  might  not  be 
delivered  to  the  Jews.  But  now  my  kingdom  is  not  from  hence."  Expanding  the 
language,  not  for  the  sake  of  paraphrasing,  but  of  illustrating  it,  the  sense  may  be 
thus  expressed :  "  My  authority  does  not,  like  that  of  temporal  rulers,  originate  in 
this  evil  world;  if  my  authority  did  originate  in  this  world,  like  that  of  temporal 
rulers,  then  (as  a  matter  of  fact,  not  of  right,  «v  »iyam'£ovTO,  indicative  mode)  would 
my  servants  be  fighting  now  (imperfect  tense)  to  defend  me  from  my  enemies.  But 
my  kingdom  is  from  a  higher  source;  my  kingdom  is  a  spiritual  authority,  bestowed 
on  me  by  the  Heavenly  Father.  I  am  the  Prince  of  Peace.  I  have  nothing  to  do 
with  violence,  rebellion  and  war;  but  my  mission  is  to  teach  those  doctrines 
which  will  for  ever  put  an  end  to  violence,  rebellion,  and  war.  Were  it  other 
wise,  I  should  not  be  standing  before  thy  tribunal,  in  this  lowly  guise  and  appa 
rently  helpless  condition;  but,  sword  in  hand,  like  other  temporal  chieftains,  I 
should  be  leading  armed  cohorts,  and  drenching  the  earth  in  blood.  But  I  say 
again,  my  authority  comes  not  from  hence;  and  deeds  like  these  have  no  sanction 
from  me  or  from  my  doctrines." 

The  laws  of  the  language  imperatively  require  this  construction.  The  princi 
ples  of  interpretation,  which  Pilate  instinctively  applied,  require  it.  Had  the 
verbs  in  the  two  selected  clauses  been  in  the  optative  mode,  g?gv  and  ayam'£oivTo, 
then  a  correct  translation  would  have  been,  '•'  If  my  kingdom  were  of  this  world, 
then  might  my  servants  fight,"  though  even  in  this  case,  the  rightfulness  of  fight 
ing  would  not  necessarily  be  inferred.  To  justify  such  an  interpretation,  even 
with  the  optative  mode,  the  verb  aj/am'£oivro,  might  fight,  would  need  to  be  quali 
fied  by  the  adverb  o^Btu;  or  £j>tai»f,  rightly  or  justly. 

The  thoughtless  paraphrase  in  the  Artillery  Election  Sermon  is  an  example  of 
that  ecclesiastical  sophistry  which  in  all  ages  of  the  Christian  church,  except  the 
earliest,  has  struggled,  sometimes  consciously,  sometimes  unconsciously,  to  abase 
the  lofty  principles  of  the  Gospel  to  the  low  standard  of  the  existing  cotemporary 
world. 


93 
NOTE     E  . 

[Referred  to  on  page  40.] 

DR.  WAYLAND'S  VIEWS  ON  WAR. — When  the  foregoing  Oration  was  delivered, 
I  was  not  aware  that  its  principles  were  sustained  so  entirely  by  an  authority  like 
Dr.  Wayland,  in  a  work,  Elements  of  Moral  Science,  which,  it  is  grateful  to  know, 
enjoys  an  immense  circulation,  and  cannot  fail,  therefore,  to  exercise  an  import 
ant  influence  over  the  youth  of  the  country.  It  is  with  great  pleasure  that  I 
make  the  following  extract,  to  which  I  invite  the  particular  attention  of  the  read 
er : — 

"  Let  us  suppose  a  nation  to  abandon  all  means,  both  of  offence  and  of  defence, 
to  lay  aside  all  power  of  inflicting  injury,  and  to  rely  for  self-preservation  solely 
upon  the  justice  of  its  own  conduct,  and  the  moral  effect  which  such  a  course  of 
conduct  would  produce  upon  the  consciences  of  men.  How  would  such  a  nation 
procure  redress  of  grievances?  and  how  would  it  be  protected  from  foreign  aggres 
sion  ? 

<f  I.  Qf  redress  of  grievances.  Under  this  head  would  be  comprehended  vio 
lation  of  treaties,  spoliation  of  property,  and  ill-treatment  of  its  citizens.  I  reply, 

"  1.  The  very  fact  that  a  nation  relied  solely  upon  the  justice  of  its  measures, 
and  the  benevolence  of  its  conduct,  would  do  more  than  anything  else  to  prevent 
the  occurrence  of  injury.  The  moral  sentiment  of  every  human  community  would 
rise  in  opposition  to  injury  inflicted  upon  the  just,  the  kind,  and  the  merciful. 
Thus,  by  this  course,  the  probabilities  of  aggression  are  rendered  as  few  as  the 
nature  of  man  will  permit. 

"  2.  But  suppose  injury  to  be  done.  I  reply,  the  proper  appeal  for  moral  beings 
upon  moral  questions,  is  not  to  physical  force,  but  to  the  consciences  of  men. 
Let  the  wrong  be  set  forth,  but  be  set  forth  in  the  spirit  of  love  ;  and  in  this  man 
ner,  if  in  any,  will  the  consciences  of  men  be  aroused  to  justice. 

"  3.  But  suppose  this  method  to  fail.  Why,  then,  let  us  suffer  the  injury.  This 
is  the  preferable  evil  of  the  two.  Because  they  have  injured  us  a  little,  it  does 
not  follow  that  we  should  injure  ourselves  much.  But  it  will  be  said,  what  is 
then  to  become  of  our  national  honour  ?  I  answer,  first,  if  we  have  acted  justly, 
we  surely  are  not  dishonoured.  The  dishonour  rests  upon  those  who  have  done 
wickedly.  I  answer  again,  national  honour  is  displayed  in  forbearance,  in  forgive 
ness,  in  requiting  faithlessness  with  fidelity,  and  grievances  with  kindness  and 
good-will.  These  virtues  are  surely  as  delightful  and  as  honourable  in  nations  as 
in  individuals. 

"  But  it  may  be  asked,  what  is  to  prevent  repeated  and  continued  aggression? 
I  answer,  first,  not  instruments  of  destruction,  but  the  moral  principle  which  God 
has  placed  in  the  bosom  of  every  man.  I  think  that  obedience  to  the  law  of  God, 
on  the  part  of  the  injured,  is  the  surest  preventive  against  the  repetition  of  injury. 
I  answer,  secondly,  suppose  that  acting  in  obedience  to  the  law  of  benevolence 
will  not  prevent  the  repetition  of  injury,  will  acting  upon  the  principle  of  retalia 
tion  prevent  it?  This  is  really  the  true  question.  The  evil  tempers  of  the 
human  heart  are  allowed  to  exist,  and  we  are  inquiring  in  what  manner  shall  we 
suffer  the  least  injury  from  them;  whether  by  obeying  the  law  of  benevolence,  or 
that  of  retaliation  ?  It  is  not  necessary,  therefore,  to  show,  that  by  adopting  the 
law  of  benevolence  we  shall  not  suffer  at  all,  but  that,  by  adopting  it,  we  shall 
suffer  less  than  by  the  opposite  course ;  and  that  a  nation  would  actually  thus 
suffer  less  upon  the  whole,  than  by  any  other  course,  cannot,  I  think,  be  doubted 
by  any  one  who  will  calmly  reflect  upon  the  subject. 

"  II.  How  would  such  a  nation  be  protected  from  external  attack  and  entire 
subjugation?  I  answer,  by  adopting  the  law  of  benevolence,  a  nation  would 
render  such  an  event  in  the  highest  degree  improbable.  The  causes  of  national 
war  are,  most  commonly,  the  love  of  plunder,  and  the  love  of  glory.  The  first  of 
these  is  rarely,  if  ever,  sufficient  to  stimulate  men  to  the  ferocity  necessary  to 
war,  unless  when  assisted  by  the  second.  And  by  adopting  as  the  rule  of  our 
conduct  the  law  of  benevolence,  all  motive  arising  from  the  second  cause  is  taken 
away.  There  is  not  a  nation  in  Europe  that  could  be  led  on  to  war  against  a 
harmless,  just,  forgiving  and  defenceless  people. 

"  But  suppose  such  a  case  really  should  occur,  what  are  we  then  to  do  ?    I  an- 


94 

swer,  suffer  injury  with  forgiveness  and  love,  looking  up  to  God,  who,  in  his  holy 
habitation,  is  the  Judge  of  the  whole  earth.  And  if  it  be  said,  we  shall  then  all 
be  subjected  and  enslaved,  I  answer  again,  have  wars  prevented  men  from  being 
subjected  and  enslaved  ?  Is  there  a  nation  on  the  continent  of  Europe  that  has 
not  been,  overrun  by  foreign  troops  several  times,  even  within  the  present  cen 
tury  ?  And  still  more,  is  it  not  most  commonly  the  case,  that  the  very  means  by 
which  we  repel  a  despotism  from  abroad,  only  establishes  over  us  a  military 
despotism  at  home  ?  Since,  then,  the  principle  of  retaliation  will  not,  with  any 
certainty,  save  a  country  from  conquest,  the  real  question,  as  before,  is,  By  obe 
dience  to  which  law  will  a  nation  be  most  likely  to  escape  it,  by  the  law  of  re 
taliation,  or  by  that  of  benevolence  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  a  man  who  will  calmly 
reflect,  can  have  but  little  doubt  on  this  matter. 

"  But  I  go  still  farther.  The  Scriptures  teach  us  that  God  has  created  men, 
both  as  individuals  and  as  societies,  under  the  law  of  benevolence  ;  and  that  he 
intends  this  law  to  be  obeyed.  Societies  have  never  yet  thought  of  obeying  it  in 
their  dealings  with  each  other ;  and  statesmen  would  generally  consider  the 
allusion  to  it  as  puerile.  But  this  alters  not  the  law  of  God,  nor  the  punishment 
which  he  inflicts  upon  nations  for  the  violation  of  it.  This  punishment  I  suppose 
to  be  war.  I  believe  aggression  from  a  foreign  nation  to  be  the  intimation  from 
God  that  we  are  disobeying  the  law  of  benevolence,  and  that  this  is  his  mode  of 
teaching  nations  their  duty,  in  this  respect,  to  each  other.  So  that  aggression 
seems  to  me  to  be  in  no  manner  a  call  to  retaliation  and  injury,  but  rather  a  call 
to  special  kindness  and  good  will.  And  still  farther,  the  requiting  evil  with  good 
tends  just  as  strongly  to  the  cessation  of  all  injury,  in  nations  as  in  individuals. 
Let  any  man  reflect  upon  the  amount  of  pecuniary  expenditure,  and  the  awful 
waste  of  human  life,  which  the  wars  of  the  last  hundred  years  have  occasioned, 
and  then  I  will  ask  him  whether  it  be  not  self-evident,  that  the  one-hundredth 
part  of  this  expense  and  suffering,  if  employed  in  the  honest  effort  to  render 
mankind  wiser  and  better,  would,  long  before  this  time,  have  banished  wars  from 
the  earth,  and  rendered  the  civilized  world  like  the  garden  of  Eden  ? 

"  If  this  be  true,  it  will  follow  that  the  cultivation  of  a  military  spirit  is  the 
cultivation  of  a  great  curse  to  a  community;  and  that  all  means,  both  of  offence 
and  defence,  are  worse  than  useless,  inasmuch  as  they  aggravate  the  very  source 
of  the  evil,  the  corrupt  passions  of  the  human  heart,  by  the  manner  in  which  they 
ineffectually  attempt  to  check  the  evil  itself. 

"  I  am  aware  that  all  this  may  be  called  visionary,  romantic  and  chimerical. 
This,  however,  neither  makes  it  so,  nor  shows  it  to  be  so.  The  time  to  apply 
these  epithets  will  be,  when  the  justness  of  their  application  has  been  proved. 
And  if  it  be  said,  these  principles  may  all  be  very  true,  but  you  can  never  induce 
nations  to  act  upon  them  ;  I  answer,  this  concession  admits  that  such  is  the  lav/ 
of  God.  If  this  be  the  case,  that  nation  will  be  the  happiest  and  the  wisest  which 
is  the  first  to  obey  it.  And  if  it  be  said,  it  would  be  wisest  and  best  to  obey  the 
law  of  benevolence,  but  men  will  never  obey  it,  I  answer,  here  is  manifestly  the 
end  of  the  argument.  If  we  show  men  what  is  wisest  and  best,  and  according  to 
the  will  of  their  Creator,  we  can  do  no  more.  If  they  disobey  it,  this  is  a  matter 
to  be  settled  between  them  and  their  God.  It  remains,  however,  to  be  seen, 
whether  God  will  or  will  not  cause  his  laws  to  be  obeyed  ;  and  whether  Omni 
science  and  Omnipotence  have  not  the  means  of  teaching  his  creatures  submission 
to  his  will. "—pp.  397-401. 


NOTE     F. 

[Referred  to  on  page  04.] 

THE  following  beautiful  anecdote  from  the  second  series  of  Mrs.  Child's  Letters 
from  New  York., — the  production  of  a  brave  and  beautiful  soul, — furnishes  an  in 
structive  illustration  of  the  text : 

"  I  have  somewhere  read  of  a  regiment  ordered  to  march  into  a  small  town  and 
take  it.  I  think  it  was  in  the  Tyrol ;  but  wherever  it  was,  it  chanced  that  the 
place  was  settled  by  a  colony  who  believed  the  Gospel  of  Christ  and  proved  their 
faith  by  works.  A  courier  from  a  neighbouring  village  informed  them  that  troops 
were  advancing  to  take  the  town.  They  quietly  answered,  'If  they,  will  take  it, 


95 

they  must.'  Soldiers  soon  came  riding  in,  with  colours  flying,  and  fifes  piping 
their  shrill  defiance.  They  looked  round  for  an  enemy,  and  saw  the  farmer  at 
his  plough,  the  blacksmith  at  his  anvil,  and  the  women  at  their  churns  and  spin 
ning-wheels.  Babies  crowded  to  hear  the  music,  and  boys  ran  out  to  see  the 
pretty  trainers,  with  feathers  and  bright  buttons, '  the  harlequins  of  the  nineteenth 
century.'  Of  course  none  of  these  were  in  a  proper  position  to  be  shot  at. 
f  Where  are  your  soldiers?'  they  asked.  '  We  have  none,'  was  the  brief  reply. 
'  But  we  have  come  to  take  the  town.'  '  Well,  friends,  it  lies  before  you.'  *  But 
is  there  nobody  here  to  fight  ?'  <  No  ;  we  are  all  Christians.' 

"  Here  was  an  emergency  altogether  unprovided  for;  a  sort  of  resistance  which 
no  bullet  could  hit;  a  fortress  perfectly  bomb-proof.  The  commander  was  per 
plexed.  <  If  there  is  nobody  to  fight  with,  of  course  we  cannot  fight,'  said  he.  <  It 
is  impossible  to  take  such  a  town  as  this.'  So  he  ordered  the  horses'  heads  to  be 
turned  about,  and  they  carried  the  human  animals  out  of  the  village  as  guiltless  as 
they  entered,  and  perchance  somewhat  wiser. 

"  This  experiment  on  a  small  scale  indicates  how  easy  it  would  be  to  dispense 
with  armies  and  navies,  if  men  only  had  faith  in  the  religion  they  profess  to  be 
lieve.  When  France  lately  reduced  her  army,  England  immediately  did  the  same  ; 
for  the  existence  of  one  army  creates  the  necessity  for  another,  unless  men  are 
safely  ensconced  in  the  bomb-proof  fortress  above  mentioned." 


NOTE    G. 

[Referred  to  on  page  70.] 

THE  following  extracts  from  two  different  sources,  will  show  that  private  persons 
once  lived  in  relations  of  distrust  towards  each  other,  similar  to  those  of  nations  of 
the  present  day.  The  first  extract  is  from  the  Paston  Letters,  written  in  the  time 
of  Henry  VII  of  England,  and  is,  perhaps,  the  most  curious  and  authentic  illustra 
tion  of  the  armed  life  of  that  period  which  can  be  found.  The  other  is  from  Sir 
Walter  Scott's  picturesque  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel.  Who  does  not  rejoice  that 
such  days  have  passed  ?  Who  will  not  join  in  labours  to  establish  among  nations 
the  same  harmonious,  unarmed  intercourse  which  now  prevails  among  individuals  ? 

"  Right  worshipful  husband/I  recommend  me  to  you,  and  pray  you  to  get  me  some 
cross-bows  andwyndnacs*  (windlasses),  to  bind  them  with,  and  quarrels,!  for  your 
houses  here  be  so  low  that  there  may  none  man  shoot  out  with  no  long  bow,  though 
we  had  never  so  much  need. 

"  I  suppose  ye  should  have  such  things  of  Sir  John  Fastolf  if  ye  would  send  to 
him;  and  also  I  would  ye  should  get  two  or  three  short  pole  axes  to  keep  with  [in] 
doors,  and  as  many  jackets  and  [if]  ye  may. 

"  Partrich  and  his  fellowship  are  sore  afraid  that  ye  would  enter  again  upon  them, 
and  they  have  made  great  ordnance  within  the  house,  and  it  is  told  me  that  they 
have  ma'de  bars  to  bar  the  doors  crosswise,  and  they  have  made  wickets  on  every 
quarter  of  the  house  to  shoot  out  at,  both  with  bows  and  with  hand-guns  ;  and  the 
holes  that  be  made  from  hand-guns  they  be  scarce  knee  high  from  the  plancher 
[floor] ,  and  of  such  holes  be  made  five,  there  can  none  man  shoot  out  at  them 
with  no  hand-bows."  Paston  Letters,  CXIII,  (LXXVII.  vol  3,  p.  31.)  Margaret 
Paston  to  her  husband. 

* 

Nine-and-twenty  knights  of  fame 

Hung  their  shields  in  the  Branksome  hall! 

Nine-and-twenty  squires  of  name 

Brought  them  their  steeds  from  bower  to  stall ; 

Nine-and-twenty  yeoman  tall 

Waited,  duteous,  on  them  all : 

They  were  all  knights  of  metal  true, 

Kinsmen  to  the  bold  Buccleuch. 

*  Wyndacs  are  what  are  called  grappling  irons,  with  which  the  bow-string  is  drawn 
home, 
t  Arrows  with  a  square  head. 


96 

Ten  of  them  were  sheathed  in  steel, 
With  belted  sword,  and  spur  on  heel: 
They  quitted  not  the  harness  bright. 
Neither  by  day,  nor  yet  by  night; 

They  lay  down  to  rest, 

With  corslet  laced, 
Pillowed  on  buckler  cold  and  hard; 

They  carved  at  the  meal 

With  gloves  of  steel, 
And  they  drank  the  red  wine  through  the  helmet  barred. 

Ten  squires,  ten  yeomen,  mail-clad  men, 
Waited  the  beck  of  the  warders  ten ; 
Thirty  steeds,  both  fleet  and  wight, 
Stood  saddled  in  stable  day  and  night, 
Barbed  with  frontlet  of  steel  I  trow, 
And  with  Jedwood  axe  at  saddle  bow. 
A  hundred  more  fed  free  in  stall ; 
Such  was  the  custom  at  Branksome  hall. 

Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel,  Canto  I. 


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